How much is the south needed to win?

[cynatnite]

In the south, many know how difficult it is for democrats to get elected. Ford got the 'liberal' stamp by a group here in the state even though his voting record has been very republican. The only 'strike', many here do consider it a strike against you, is his pro-choice stance. There was an ad some time ago that said he was soft on terrorists and illegal immigrants. They flashed 'liberal' on the screen as if in dire warning.

It's a reality in the state of TN that Democrats have to walk a very small tightrope in order to get elected. It's not even necessarily about Ford, but more about people like Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton who many despise.

It's no wonder Ford is carefully campaigning away from the democratic party as far as he can get. I know a lot of you find what I'm saying apologistic, but after reading this article:

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7971109

I thought a lot about the positions Ford and other southern democrat politicians are in this election year. We need control of the house and the senate more so than all the issues we stand for. In order to put a stop to the criminal and harmful actions of the bush regime we need all the dems to win that we can get. The more the better.

Keep in mind many of us do live in the south. Does any of this make sense or am I thinking too much?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[sandnsea]

2. We need a strategy

The first thing we need to do is diffuse 'liberal'. I thought Lamont did a great job with those funny commercials about the smears that were going to be slung his way. We could do some ads like that. Flashing liberal like a warning - with the actual record of any given candidate or the party as a whole. Or ads that show some of the more bizarre things Dems have been accused of - like banning bibles or some such. In a funny way.

I also think it's about time we remind the south where the Sons of Liberty are actually from and who fought to keep this country together. How dare they call northerners unpatriotic!

But in the meantime, a Dem has to do what a Dem has to do.

[skipos]

3. Many American elections have been decided by one or two states

That's why I pray to God that we have a good 08 ticket with candidates from flippable red states. If Kerry or Edwards was from Ohio, they'd be in the Whitehouse. If Gore chose Graham from FL as VP, they'd be in the Whitehouse. I'd prefer non-senators too, since senators are the easiest candidates too smear.

Overall, we need Pres candidate who can sell the progressive agenda to people who don't fancy themselves progressive (as well as self-proclaimed progressives, of course). Earthy, "regular old guys" like Governor Schweitzer of MT are going to have an easier time doing it than most New England progressives like Kerry.

[nealmhughes]

4. All the states from Virginia to Kentucky to Florida to Texas and Oklahoma.

That is a mighty big chunk of territory. With a whooole bunch of folks up in there.

I don't rightly know how much learning they can get in a crash course, what with the DLC sending our jobs to NAFTA and CAFTA and Asia in textiles and telling us it was right good for us and all...

At least the Republcians have Jesus on their side, or so they say. Don't you want to keep your precious white little girl from sitting beside a dirty (fill in blank here at will) or h*m*s*x**l?

Most of us done got 10 or even 12 years of book learning, and the radio and the TV on the satellite...

You get the drift. The South is larger than most European countries and has a very, very, very complex history and culture. To stereotype the South as a loathsome pro-fascist Most Serene Christian Republic is to do short shrift of one's analysis.

The main problem in the South is class. Not race. Repeat, not race. Class. The power brokers chose race to distract from the class war that has been going on there since the land was divided in Jamestown. The early formations of governments in Tennessee and Kentucky followed Jefferson to the letter, as did their sucessors, Alabama and Mississippi. That damned cotton fever caught hold, then Texas Fever, and voila.

Until Southerners stop being cowed by their "betters", whether in judges' robes or preachers' stoles or with an Hon. before their name and a country club membership, it will be status quo. We have a supposedly House of the People in each state and refuse to even consider to quash the "right to work" laws here. Our jobs get oursourced faster than they did in the so called Rust Belt. Hey, Yankees! The South is an industrialized urban/suburban society now. I hear that the native peasant costume now even includes shoes. We now make cars, even Mercedes and Toyotas, but with no noxious UAW or enforced environmental laws. Our native Appalachian hardwood forests are stripped and replaced with pine. Our mountanin sides were long denuded of topsoil for access to bauxite and coal.

In short, we get the the government we deserve in the South for refusing to stand up for a biracial workers' coalition that wants to preserve what is good about the South and ditch the moon light and magnolias myth.
What will it take to change? I don't know. Education is probably the key. There is really two castes in the South, the educated and the non, and they are known instantly as soon as we open our mouths.

Oh, the South was founded in the misery of kidnapped African laborers and their descendents by people who preached the Common Law virtues of universal freedom until proven that someone had a right to one's labor and freedom being inverted by political philosophers and religious pundits -- sort of the neocons of their day, if one will. The area was based on the premise that fast money lay around the bend and that life was short and one needed to make the hay while the sun shone. That is a hard thing to change, especiallys since most don't wish to confront their own history.