Papantonio: Democrats Need To Abandon The South

[GoLeft TV]

Mike Papantonio talks about how the Democratic Party needs to stop wasting their time attempting to sway the conservative red state south, and focus their energy in areas where they can actually make a difference.

[JNelson6563]

1. Wrong.

I believe in Howard Dean's 50 state strategy. As a Congressional district chair of 14 counties (only two were blue!) I worked with every single one of them. Raised money, taught party building and some years later the work we did then has continually been built upon.

Throw in the fact that I view surrender as the cowardly path and yeah, I disagree with the notion of abandoning anywhere.

Julie--who thinks as long as you live to fight another day, you haven't completely lost

[RBInMaine]

17. Not much will change though until demographics shift in the deep south.

[longship]

2. Nope!

That would mean giving up the House and the Senate.

[Ken Burch]

5. I think he meant on the presidential level.

The positions you have to take to carry Southern states as a presidential candidate make it impossible to do anything progressive once you actually have the job.

[longship]

12. Nope, too.

Pap is full of shit here. The demographics are not stagnant. The 50 state solution works, as Dr. Dean showed.

You give up the Obama race in the south, you strand many good Democratic candidates who could otherwise win.

No, Pap! You are full of shit!

[Ken Burch]

13. I doubt Obama will actually take Pap's advice here.

n/t.

[RBInMaine]

18. I don't think TeamObama is running many ads in the deep South.

[Ilsa]

3. Mike is a smart man, but I disagree with him.

Writing off the South condemns ~47% of southerners and leaves them to the mercy of the whacked-out GOP.

Information and education is the way to go.

[Ken Burch]

6. The key is to talk about class.

We've made the mistake of trying to appease the sort of Southerner bazillionaires that want to keep feudalism in place down there...the neo-Bourbons. It's just not worth it.

Our strategy should be aimed at the Norma Raes...not the Sam Waltons.

[bluestateguy]

4. Only a couple of Southern states should be abandoned

I won't name names, but writing off the whole region is just stupid to the nth degree. That would leave no room for error anywhere else.

I will not vote for a candidate in the 2016 primaries who would embrace such a strategy.

[struggle4progress]

7. We carried FL, NC, and VA in 2008. I'm hoping TX will be in play by 2016.

It's just stupid to write off big chunks of the population

[doc03]

8. What about WV the redneck morons voted for

a convicted felon actually serving time over Obama in the primaries?

[freshwest]

9. Wrong because warped views are not confined to one region.

People are moving into blue states from red states and the ideologies that rule the south are spreading nationally from churches and corporations. They control media share in all the states, and are changing the minds of the people in blue regions. No area is proof to them, there are no blue strongholds left, they are purple. This won't stop them, better to overcome them in conservative areas instead of allowing them to metastasize.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

10. How about the Far West and the Tornado Belt?

Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, hell, western Washington.

Not to mention Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kentucky.

There are birthers and Christianists and nutjobs in EVERY state. My blue state has Darrel Issa and Dan Lundgren and Buck McKeon and we elected Arnold and Raygun governors fer crying out loud.

[freshwest]

11. It's not *just* the south, but that's what the OP is about. Not confined to the south, which is the

known as the archtype. It's not, really. The more we learn of our true history, the south was simply the most obvious.

[Festivito]

14. Maybe presidentially, but smaller races can be winners.

Many people like to split their vote. If they want a Republican president, they then prefer an opposing Representative.

We need that. We need them.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. The South are the ones that put in Jimmy Carter.

Want to win in the South?

Have fellow Southerners call out the Right Wing hate as being just as unacceptable as the racist hate. It's only under pressure from within that a society changes.

[RBInMaine]

16. His most important point is on the demographics shifting. NC & VA are purple. Deep South won't

change much until more demographics shift. Tennessee has lots of Dems in state office and a D governor and there are a lot of D's, though quite a minority. We can't write off ANY region, but you also can't spend too much resource trying to move the deep South with its current demographics.

[wilt the stilt]

19. He is right

this is an aristocratic society and it always has been. I live down here and it just the way it is.

[NC_Nurse]

20. Don't give up now! Demographics are changing and those of us down here

don't want to be abandoned!