“The troquita — the truck — it’s symbolic,” Senator Ruben Gallego tells David Leonhardt on “The Opinions.” “It really is a status symbol that you have succeeded in this country.”

Jamelle Bouie says the South’s appeal isn’t just cheaper living; it’s the power to use wealth to control others. Tressie McMillan Cottom calls it “the ‘Yellowstone’-ification of the country.” But that kind of dominance also means giving up something: the diversity and cultural egalitarianism of cosmopolitan life.

Tressie McMillan Cottom argues that our obsession with Southern culture isn’t just about charm or nostalgia. It’s about reassurance. We romanticize its music, verandas and magnolias, yet, despite the political drift in other states, insist that “at least we’re not the South.”

Democrats aren’t selecting the right fighters for the moment, says New York Times Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie. Bouie, along with the columnists Michelle Goldberg and David French, debate how the Democrats are handling the shutdown on “The Opinions” latest round table.

Congress may seem dysfunctional from the outside, but the government shutdown is a sign that something more sinister is going on, says the Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg.