Reply #41: maybe it's a big tent [View All]

[yolatengo]

Perhaps Dean feels that if we welcome economically disadvantaged
white southerners who have in the past been taken in by the GOP's
crypto-racist rhetoric it will be the first step towards changing
their attitudes and eventually they won't BE the type of voters
Gephardt 'doesn't want'.

The Democratic Party can have the old Wallace vote AND the black
vote if they strive to change the attitude of the former, and don't
just pander to them at the expense of the latter. Get their votes
NOW, and slowly change them later is better than "let's think up
some obscure and complicated equation for winning without
getting a single vote from Zell Miller's South".

How are things ever going to change if there is nothing but
suspicion on both sides? How will white Southern GOP voters
ever realize they are being fooled by wedge issues to blame
and hate blacks and others at the expense of their own
economic stability if the Dems constantly say "we don't
want any of you cracker *ss racists in our party EVER".

Saying "you change your evil ways first then maybe we'll
let you in" is not a successful strategery.

It worked better when Dean said it because some think he's
a small, rural state, non-ruling-class 'maverick' who seems
to not be anti-gun. Lieberman is perceived as a Washington
Insider Connecticut suburban Jew who hates guns and
Christianity.

Bigby