Reply #68: The South [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

FDR won the South with economic liberalism, something that the DLC fears.

When dittoheads talk about the Dems as being "too liberal," it's usually the hot button issues like abortion and gun control that they're talking about.

That's why the Dems' Southern strategy should play down the social issues and go straight for the economic issues, which is where the Repiggies are most vulnerable. We cannot and should not, no matter how desperate we get, play to the "Christian" Reconstructionists or the televangelists.

But we need politicians who can talk in a non-patronizing, commonsense way about how the Repiggies economic and foreign policies have hurt THEM. We need someone who can not only criticize the Repiggies but also put forth easily understandable solutions.

Remember Huey Long. Although his career ended with his assassination in an atmosphere of corruption and scandal, he initially won the governorship of Louisiana because he understood what his state needed. He campaigned throughout the state emphasizing two campaign promises: to start a road and bridge building program (the state had only 400 miles of paved roads at the time) and to provide free textbooks for public school children (children were staying out of school because their parents were unable to afford textbooks, which of course meant that Louisiana had a high rate of illiteracy).

These promises were based on people's genuine needs, not their prejudices (he never appealed to racial bigotry), and when people heard him speak, their natural reaction was, "I never thought of it that way, but he's right."

We will not break through the fundamentalist and/or racist conditioning of many Southern voters, but we can make an end run around it. The fundies have nothing to say about job losses and decaying physical and social infrastructure and unaffordable housing and unaffordable medical care. That's what we should address in the South. That's what we should address in the North.

Who needs a "Southern strategy" when you can create a national strategy that will also resonate in the South?