GOP has gone too far South

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 16, 2006, 8:45PM
Cultural divide
GOP has gone too far South
Party's challenge now is to bridge gap between base and rest of nation

By HAROLD MEYERSON

You've seen the numbers and understand that America is growing steadily less white. You try to push your party, the Grand Old Party, ahead of this curve by taking a tolerant stance on immigration and making common cause with some black churches. Then you go and blow it all in a desperate attempt to turn out your base by demonizing immigrants and running racist ads against Harold Ford. On Election Day, black support for Democrats remains high; Hispanic support for Democrats surges. So what do you do next?

What else? Elect Trent Lott your deputy leader in the Senate. Sure locks in the support of any stray voters who went for Strom in '48.

In case you haven't noticed, a fundamental axiom of modern American politics has been altered in recent weeks. For four decades, it's been the Democrats who've had a Southern problem. Couldn't get any votes for their presidential candidates there; couldn't elect any senators, then any House members, then any dogcatchers. They still can't, but the Southern problem, it turns out, is really the Republicans'. They've become too Southern — too suffused with the knee-jerk militaristic, anti-scientific, dogmatically religious, and culturally, sexually and racially phobic attitudes of Dixie — to win friends and influence elections outside the South. Worse yet, they became more Southern still on Election Day last month, when the Democrats decimated the GOP in the North and West. Twenty-seven of the Democrats' 30 House pickups came outside the South.

The Democrats won control of five state legislatures, all outside the South, and took more than 300 state legislative seats away from Republicans, 93 percent of them outside the South. As for the new Senate Republican caucus that chose Mississippi's Lott over Tennessee's Lamar Alexander to be deputy to Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, 17 of its 49 members come from the Confederacy proper, with another three from the old border states of Kentucky and Missouri, and two more from Oklahoma, which is Southern but with more dust. In all, 45 percent of Republican senators come from the Greater South.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4406839.html

[jus_the_facts]

1. Amazing since the last two half -assed decent presidents were southern democrats...

...and one was DENIED his obvious place in the WH...:eyes:

too suffused with the knee-jerk militaristic, anti-scientific, dogmatically religious, and culturally, sexually and racially phobic attitudes of Dixie

[Selatius]

2. There would be a 2nd civil war if gay rights, abortion, etc. were as divisive as slavery.

Because they'd be voting against the Democrat over abortion, gay rights, guns, and other social issues even though the Democrat could be offering the 2nd New Deal to help all people.

[Syrinx]

3. it's past time for the true Christians to step up

And to a large extent that is happening. The Christian Coalition is splintering as we speak, with the Christian wing of the Christian Coalition spinning off from the Hate Wing. I'm not particularly religious myself, but more power to the Christians who read the Bible and learned from it love and compassion, instead of the hate, intolerance and greed that passes in some quarters for Christ's "message."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Just one note:

The Democrats didn't have to win control of the Arkansas state legislature, because they already HAD control. 3/4 of our congressional delegation in Democratic, and both senators are Democratic. AND the Dems just won back the Governorship. I think that Arkansas, at least, is likely to go blue in '08.

[Clark2008]

5. Same in Tennessee.

Don't you just love these "the South sucks" stories, ayeshahaqqiqa? Especially when one looks at those red/blue maps and sees the Great Plains states make the South look positively liberal?

:grr:

How many times does it need to be said: the mid-West is more Republican than the South? Is this a ploy to keep the Dems from TRYING to improve their base down here?

[CTyankee]

7. I think a lot of people, including me, were disappointed in the blatant

racism of the recent Ford campaign in Tennessee. If that was the ultimate cause of Ford's defeat, it is a terrible signal re the South and racism.

While the Dem party still has to build infrastructure in every state, it makes some sense to see if we can win in 08 without the South (exluding Arkansas where we have a real shot, particularly with Wes Clark). And I agree that the mid West still poses formidable challenges, so none of this will be easy!

[ooga booga]

8. excellent point about Arkansas.....now about Texas.......

The underlying idea there is that voters in Arkansas are ready to go for a Democrat if they don't have to get too far out of their comfort zone. Unfortunately, I think Hillary and Kerry both represent "outside the comfort zone". Find 'em someone like John Edwards that they can relate to and you could see their state go blue.

Now, in Texas, 2004 and 2006 have been election cycles where Democrats have made some gain in the small local races not the big statewide ones. In 2004, Dallas County gave John Kerry 49% of the vote and Congressman Martin Frost got 44% and lost when Delay worked very hard to give him no chance at all. Dallas County also elected a sheriff who is a Democrat, a Hispanic, a woman and an open lesbian. Listen, folks, for Dallas County THAT is rather significant. In 2006, the Democrats won lots and lots of judgeships from entrenched judges who had sought refuge in the GOP. The polarity seems to have shifted in Dallas County. Too many of Republican voters have left for the outlying counties.

Similiar "small ball" gains have been happening in Texas' other major urban counties and the rural counties are getting energized by things like the draconian land grab of the Trans Texas Corridor.

Stayed tuned in to Texas. The political landscape is shifting slowly, slowly. Change is afoot.

[jcrew2001]

6. Ark

Arkansas has always been a blue state - the Democratic machine is just too strong down there. It is also one of the poorest states, so there isn't enough structure to improve Republican candidates there.

The reason Arkansas went red was because Southerners generally do not vote for Northerners and stick to their own.

If Huckabee wins the GOP nomination, then Ark will got to the GOP.

[geek tragedy]

9. I wonder what Zell "A National Party No More" Miller

has to say about this.

:rofl: