Is Regional Bias a Productive Pursuit for the Democratic Party?

[TheProle]

Among the many broad-brushes in our political culture, regional bias seems especially prevalent, as frustrations and desire for change often manifest as generalized condemnation of a state or region, often where democrats are working hard to swim against a red tide and turn their states blue.

For consideration: Is this type of bias ultimately a productive pursuit for the Democratic party, or is it unnecessarily divisive and reductionist?

15 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, it's productive - just take my word for it
	1 (7%)
	Yes, it's productive - and I will explain why in comments
	1 (7%)
	No - it's counterproductive and myopic
	12 (80%)
	No - but for other reasons
	0 (0%)
	Maybe - let's keep doing it and see
	0 (0%)
	Unsure
	0 (0%)
	Other
	1 (7%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[bucolic_frolic]

1. What is regional bias? /nt

[TheProle]

2. One example

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217892480

But by no means the only….

[IbogaProject]

3. It is very prodictive

It is very good for the wealthy to keep us divided and not allow the party which caters to the vast majority of this country's citizens get too much power and start changing things like we did in the 30s or the 60s.

[Tommy Carcetti]

4. Nope. nt

[Amishman]

5. No, because the real divide is urban rural

The determination of if a state or region is red or blue is just if the urban population is large enough to offset rural red votes.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Is the party really doing that? Or is it just posters around here?

[TheProle]

7. Fair point

It's not coming from the official party leadership, if that's what you're asking. But yes, if you look at other social media (Twitter, Reddit, etc.), there is a fair amount of it. It's certainly not specific to DU.

Link to tweet

[BlackSkimmer]

8. Lots of it here.

I found it beyond ironic that a particular poster who continually denigrates the south was all up in arms. because the mean republicans make fun of his region of the country.

Apparently, he doesn't recognize he is doing the same thing to members of his own party.

[Aristus]

15. It's not that they make fun of it. Hell, we do that all the time up here.

It's that they have such a hilariously inaccurate view of the Pacific Northwest, based on a podcast by some red-faced screaming guy who has never set foot outside East Cornpone, Arkassippi.

I, on the other hand, have lived all over the South, was born in Texas, and raised by an all-Southern family. I have some wonderful, warm nostalgic memories of growing up in Texas. But that's all it is: nostalgia. Reality stopped resembling memory sometime around the mid-90's. It's frustrating. If the combined populations of Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio can't outvote the kind of people who live in East Bug Zapper, then I don't know what to say.

[BlackSkimmer]

18. Gonna quote one of my favorite DUers.

A hit dog hollers.

[Aristus]

19. And I was so hoping we'd have another date.

n/t

[BlackSkimmer]

20. A quote from history: I do desire that we may be better strangers.

[Aristus]

21. Shakespeare.

Well done.

[BlackSkimmer]

23. Yeah, we southerners are acquainted with the Bard.

Condescension noted.

Apparently, that dog did get hit!

[maxrandb]

9. Sure, I mean, it's not like Retrumplicans have been describing "blue" areas

as "Somali like hellscape, shitholes".

Only Retrumplicans should be allowed to use "regional bias".

Both sides do it, right?

I mean, just the other day I read that Democrats were closing polling places in rural 'Merika, making people travel 60 miles to vote, removing ballot drop boxes, and only allowing early in person voting at the nearest Planned Parenthood during Nascar races.

[brooklynite]

10. Regional bias isn't a pursuit of the Democratic Party, productive or not.

Successful candidates with rural conservatives areas in their district are smart enough to campaign there and engage with those voters.

[Bonx]

11. It's a subset of identity politics - which I don't like.

[Hortensis]

12. NO, because the Democratic PARTY belongs to all our nation.

Are some people reacting to fear by shooting at their own futures, while enjoying thoughts of hurting targets of momentary unreasoned malice? Yes. Fear does strange things, but their acting out defines ONLY themselves and only when in that mood -- not the Democratic Party.

Btw, where would America be without the Democratic Party defining principles and ideals and setting standards that reflect those of the many millions who make it up? A question worth thinking about maybe. If we didn't have us.

[edhopper]

13. Pointing out that States

with heavy, if not overwhelming GOP majorities are doing great damage to themselves and our nation is not "regional bias" it's facts.

Sorry if saying your Governor or Legislature is turning your State into a shithole, or more of a shithole and that most of the voters in your State support it hurts you, but I am not going to shut up to spare your feelings.

Are we not suppose to criticize any State or Region, even if they are doing terrible things?

[demmiblue]

14. +1

[GusBob]

24. So, where are you from?

and how does a region 'do terrible things'? Why is you region so much better?

the request was to give a productive answer. It seems as if you are OK with hurting people. Why?


the first question in this reply rarely gets answered around here, and I am just searching for a perfect place

[edhopper]

25. New York

The State where our former Governor screwed up and cost us the House.

And the Northeast, where abortion is still legal.

[BlackSkimmer]

26. When I was just a mere young'un in the USAF, I was stationed in upstate NY.

Having grown up in NC and learning at an early age that the Confederate flag was abhorrent, imagine my amazement to see those flags flying there? All over the upstate. Utica,, Spencerport, various other small towns I've forgotten...and certainly in western NY.

One fella I knew, from PA, had a nice Camaro (Firebird, who knows?) and he had a Confederate plate on his car. He was just a young'un too and sweet on me. When I asked him about it, he said he thought it was "cool".

I saw more of those flags up north than I have EVER seen flying in NC. I still remember writing my parents about it. Both parents were from Great Britain, and they were also surprised. But not as much as I.

But I've never forgotten my mom saying, Skimmer hon, you will find prejudice and ignorance all over this world.

I took a road trip to New England a few years ago, and along the way I saw the same thing...again in PA, and then again in MA. Gobsmacked.

NC has also kept abortion legal, though obviously that's in peril now.

You know what's different in NC now than when I grew up? WAY more northerners living here. I know as many northerners as southerners. So, wonder what changed when NC went for Obama, and then began to change as the population did?


So you can brag on your northeast all you want, but you've got plenty of MAGAs up there.

I need to find that list of states most represented in Jan 6. Pretty damn sure the Northeast was WELL represented in that little brouhaha.

[edhopper]

28. There are a ton of MAGAS

and they elect repugnant Republicans. But my State is still controlled by the Democrats and we aren't passing laws to take away Rights.

I would love to see NC go Blue, but for now I will criticize ANY State that passes abhorrent Laws and the voters who support it.

Why can't I criticize the anti-voter laws your State is passing and the people who support that?

This idea that to criticize a State is insulting everyone who lives in that State is asinine IMHO.

[BlackSkimmer]

29. I'm familiar with your posts. Very.

It's very clear what you're doing. You do it often, and you know that.

Do you feel it's productive to disparage other Dems and where they live? Do you?

And if you feel it to be productive, please tell me how that is so? I just can't see how that works somehow.

Does it make you feel better? Maybe go to a non-Dem site and try it on, eh?

Do you think Dems here don't fight for our rights, don't vote, don't work to get out the vote?

Could you enlighten me why almost all the northerners I know here are from NY?

Same as when I lived in Florida. All northeasterners and midwesterners. In my 25 years in Florida, I only met ONE other Carolinian, and don't remember any southerners at all.

Could you also enlighten me why I read so many anecdotes here about mask encounters, racist encounters, "Karen" encounters from NY? PA? CA? Never mind Ohio.

Done here, so you have a lovely northeastern evening now, y'hear?

[edhopper]

30. Why is criticizing a GOP controlled State

and the awful things they do criticizing EVERY person in that State, including Democrats?

I don't see it that way.

[GusBob]

32. Oh man I thought we were playing

‘fuck your feelings’
Be consistent

[edhopper]

33. Foolish consistency

etcetera, etcetera...

[GusBob]

34. The state where Trump is from?

Brag it up brother

[edhopper]

36. The State that hates Trump

Which he fled to the State that loves him.
The only place Trump has been indicted.
The State working to close down his business.
Not the State where he now lives passing laws to protect him.

You see the deference is I will criticize the idiot voters of Long Island who gave us George Santos.
I will agree that the New Yorkers who vote for people likecStefanik are horrible.
I don't get offended when someone calls out others in my State.

But point out how abominable some Red State governments are, and you are insulting fellow Democrats.

Sorry, but I can't worry about their feelings while their State turns the country to shit.

[GusBob]

37. Oh so we are playing fuck your feelings

Don t be offended if I tell you, you come off as a loser
And a jerk

[edhopper]

38. Okay

But you didn't hurt my feelings.

[msfiddlestix]

16. regional bias isn't a thing to pursue. it isn't an agenda or goal

it's a built in social construct or psychological condition.

[Act_of_Reparation]

17. It isn't productive, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

You're tired of hearing people shit on your state in these forums. Well, Northeasterners and West Coasters have been tired of people shitting on their states in the national news for the past, I dunno, forty or so years. You don't have to like it, or agree with it, but if you understand where these people are coming from you may be more successful in addressing their behavior.

[BlackSkimmer]

27. Sooo, to be sure I understand this...you folks are tired of the national news "shitting on you", so

you think attacking other Dems on a Democratic forum makes that OK?

Somehow this sounds like that excuse I learned not to use even way back in elementary school, "well, HE did it FIRST!"

Gimme a break.

[Act_of_Reparation]

31. No, you clearly don't understand this.

I said absolutely nothing of the sort.

[keep_left]

22. One of the things that might help with this problem is a return to the 50-state strategy...

...advocated (and fought for) by Howard Dean. A return to civics education in the high schools would also be a good start.

[Iggo]

35. Absolutely.

I don’t really think so. But I’m a knee-jerk contrarian when shit’s gettin’ stirred. The clumsier the attempt, the better.

So yes. Regional bias is absolutely productive. By the way, where ya from?

[maxrandb]

39. Wasn't the Civil War, in part, "regional bias"?

You had regions supporting the enslavement of human beings. You had tegions supporting racial discrimination and genocide.

That's not to say that there were no racist, or pro-slavery folks on the North. Hell, there are still a shit-ton of racists in the North.

The problem with all of this "don't criticize the fascist states, because there are 'good' people there" argument, is that it ignores the fact that "blue majority" states AREN'T passing draconian fascist laws.

See that is the difference.

There are racists dipshits in blue states. They just haven't been given unchecked majority power to pass and enforce fascist legislation

It's why you don't hear bitching about fascists in California. They haven't been given the power to ban books...yet

[TheProle]

40. Book Banning Is a Concerning Trend in the Golden State

In 2020, the liberal leaning City of Burbank banned five well-known titles: “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, “The Cay” by Theodore Taylor, “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. The Burbank Unified School District objected to the inclusion of these books in their schools’ curriculum because according to them these titles “cast Black people in negative, hopeless, and secondary roles; and all but one are written from the lens of a White author.”

https://www.postnewsgroup.com/book-banning-is-a-concerning-trend-in-the-golden-state/