Should The Dems Give Up On The South

[Ivote]

As per c-span
Requested by Roxy66
Welcome newbie
:hi:

[flygal]

1. Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!

sorry, old joke from last week.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I say this respectfully:

This is a mad, mad, mad question. Look at the percentages of people who voted for kerry and ask yourself: Do We Abandon Them?

I voted no.

[Tanuki]

8. Agreed

Thank you, Tandalayo. I live in a blue town (Nashville) in a "red state." It really hurts that fellow democrats are discussing "writing us off" after all the hours of work, money spent, and personal abuse so many of us have put up with. Yes, Tennessee's electoral votes went to Bush, but before those of you who are so cavalier about this ride off on your high horses, please consider the fact that 5 of our 9 congressional representatives are Democrats. That is better than the national average, considering that the Republicans are the majority there. We also have a Democratic governor. We are really struggling to do the right thing here and it is hard enough not to get demoralized about it without recriminations from here of all places. Please, let's leave the circular firing squads to the Republicans, can't we?

[TNDemo]

10. Here, here.

Thanks, fellow Nashvillian. There are millions of voting Democrats in the south. How can you just abandon all these people, many of whom have worked themselves to exhaustion?

[Art_from_Ark]

13. Meanwhile, across the river in Arkansas

75% of our Congresscritters are Dems, and in the nearly 130 years since the end of Reconstruction, we have had only one Repub Senator-- and he was kicked out after only one term!

[ktowntennesseedem]

19. I agree, from a red-city in the same red-state!

Knoxville went for Bush in a big way, but there are plenty of us here in the minority who refuse to be ignored. The only way I see the Dems making any comeback nationally is to redefine the debate; Repugs are NOT better on values and morals, but they're perceived that way because they have dominated the discussion with simple, "sound-bite" answers to which the average voter can relate. I don't know that we can ever win back any southern state, at least not in the foreseeable future, but if we work at reaching southern voters and addressing their concerns, we will be able to win votes all over. Collectively, it should be enough to solidify the blue states, pull a few more battleground states to the blue column, and who knows, perhaps even pick off a red state here and there.

Don't try to win a particular southern state; just work at winning more southern voters.

Welcome, Tanuki! :hi:

[blindpig]

14. thank you. Enough of this nonsense. n/t

[bryant69]

3. Short term, yes, long term, no.

I think in winning elections in the next few years, other than a few urban house seats, we need to focus where we can win. On the other hand we need to cultivate a group of southern leaders who can push the party further in the South.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TNDemo]

4. Uh, the red states weren't just in the south.

Are you going to have a poll to give up on most of the continental US?

[Roxy66]

5. Thanks....This is a really important subject on C-Span right now

The insite people are providing on C-span this morning is amazing. I'm not sure what we should do about the south.

[bunkerbuster1]

6. While the national party needs to be realistic about the job

ahead of them, and yes, it will be very difficult for any Democratic presidential nominee to take any of the old Confederate states in 2008, and yes, many proles in the old South are idiots who willingly vote against their own interests, I vote NO.

Resoundingly so. I live in a red state, in a red county in fact--my county went 160K Bush / 90K Kerry. That's an uphill climb. But I'll work locally and try to make my Democrats more effective, and to keep them true to the MORAL VALUES that bind us all.

That said, I couldn't blame the blue-staters if they left us to rot. I can only ask politely that you not give up on us.

[tibbir]

7. Keep in mind that in the shrubster's "home state" of Texas

40% of the people who voted were for Kerry. We're in the minority but taken as a whole it's a fairly sizeable one.

I think we should work to eliminate the winner-take-all system assuming that the electoral college is here to stay. A few borderline states would not decide the outcome of the election and states like Texas wouldn't be totally out of play.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Are you kidding??? MrG is a Southern boy...his Kentucky/Tenessee

family all voted Kerry. That's an awful idea. We need to educate these people.

[blindpig]

15. more than education, we need to offer southern workers something

a return to New Deal ideals and programs would be a start.

[Joy Anne]

11. on giving up

Most people there have needs and hopes the same as everyone else's, but the majority don't know that yet. We need to keep trying to make our points clearly and persuasively.

However, the one thing we cannot do is pander to "their mind-set," as defined by some DLC suit.

[arwalden]

12. When We Give Up The Electoral College, We Won't Need To "Give Up" TheSouth

The winner-take-all approach is more harmful than helpful. Direct voting will empower more people than it would hurt.

If it's impossible to win a Southern state's EC votes, then it does make sense to "give up" on it and concentrate the efforts where it's more likely to produce a winner-take-all EC vote.

Of course, recounts would be a real BITCH of a nightmare... perhaps a smaller winner-take-all approach would work. Instead of a statewide EC vote, maybe a county-by-county approach would work better.

-- Allen

[TomClash]

16. I'm a died-in-the-wool Northeasterner and I say . . .

. . . absolutely NOT.

Indeed, we should listen to what they have to say and we should craft a more economically populist message.

[mmonk]

17. Only if you plan to give up on the western states as well.

The truth told to every household can turn events against the republicans.

[Lindsay]

18. Over the weekend, I saw a discussion on C-Span

involving African American GOTV efforts. One of the panelists commented that the south had already felt abandoned by the Dems. And we've got to remember that elections are not only about a President, but about Congressional races and local elections.

We must hang together or we will assuredly hang separately.

[bemildred]

20. Hell NO.

There are many good people in the South, most of them,
and we cannot abandon them.

[AlabamaYankee]

21. The DNC already has

In 2002 the DCCC promised substantial support to the Democratic candidate in Alabama's Third District in an open race. They reneged at the last minute leaving him with a several hundred thousand dollar debt and a loss by fewer than 2500 votes. They pulled the same crap this year.

We worked our asses off for Kerry, and will be spending the next two years organizing the county. The malAdministration is going to fail so spectacularly we should be able to make some serious advances in the coming years.

We've all had a week to piss and moan. It's time to get to work.

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. Don't give up on it. Reform the election system and see where

that takes us.

------------------------------------------------------------
Help expose the election 2004 voter fraud today!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[Mike L]

23. We're going to have to accept middle America's positions

on guns, God and gay marriage (for now) to avoid total defeat in the Senate and to win the WH. It won't necessarily win us the South, but it will win OH and will win back IA and NM and probably get us a couple other Midwestern states.