Can Democrats Win Back the Deep South?

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/can-democrats-win-back-the-deep-south/277123/


A volunteer for President Obama's 2012 campaign in Wilson, North Carolina. (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

A few weeks ago, municipal elections were held in Mississippi. The state Republican Party concentrated its efforts on four traditional GOP strongholds -- Tupelo, Meridian, Starkville, and the picturesque Gulf Coast burg of Ocean Springs.

But on Election Day, June 4, Mississippi Republicans got a rude shock: They lost all four.

Tupelo got its first Democratic mayor in nearly 30 years, a 37-year-old trial lawyer. Meridian got its first black mayor ever. Ocean Springs' Democratic incumbent won a third term to preside over an all-Republican board of aldermen. Mississippi Democrats proclaimed it "Blue Tuesday."

"It's been a long time coming," Percy Bland, the 42-year-old mayor-elect of Meridian, told me. "We haven't had a Democratic mayor in Meridian since '76. And we won it running away, when people thought it would be very close." To win 54 percent of the vote, he said, he had to attract support from blacks and whites, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. In April, Bland had found a stuffed dog hanging from a noose outside his insurance business. In his victory speech, he paid tribute to the three civil-rights workers murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in nearby Philadelphia in 1961. They died, he said, so the people of Meridian could vote.


***

[MannyGoldstein]

1. The moment that Democrats get RESULTS, we win back the entire country

For some reason, "We suck less, assholes" resonates less than "See? We got into office and your lives got better."

Weird.

[xchrom]

2. yes -- and running camouflaged blue dogs won't help.

progressive idea -- communicated with a resonate populist platform will.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. yep.

[Scuba]

5. +1 "Not the Republican" just doesn't flip my flapjacks.

[Doctor_J]

6. Yep. if they would commit to defying Hate Radio and Fox "News"

instead of pandering to them, things would change immediately.

I see almost no hope of this happening. Civil War II is more likely than Grayson/Sanders Dems taking the party back from Reid and Obama

[Chathamization]

18. True, though they have no reason to move in that direction

until they are pushed to do so. The party isn't going to move on it's own.

[Harmony Blue]

22. This, this, this

"we suck less" or "we are less evil" doesn't generate excitement with the voter base.

[Agony]

26. Ha Ha HA

I like you better than that Third Way Asshole!

[carolinayellowdog]

4. The Great Remigration Makes it Almost Inevitable, combined with Hispanic influx

Just posted this link yesterday in another thread, and the migration patterns into Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida look very promising for Democrats. I felt hopeless about Mississippi until reading this Atlantic article, thanks for posting.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. As others have said in this thread......

Yes, but it will take a return to the left populist stances that Democrats held and actually campaigned on during the 30s to win widespread races in the Deep South. Think an updated Huey Long type of populism. A cap on top end wealth and redistributing that downwards to everybody else.

[Recursion]

15. You're missing half of Huey P. Long's appeal: populsim for whites only (nt)

[socialist_n_TN]

24. Not really. Huey wasn't a saint by any means.....

and the 30s in the south was a highly racist decade, but Huey actually used the racism inherent in the system to raise living standards for ALL of the citizens of Louisiana including the black citizenry.

[Recursion]

28. And he opposed FDR after 1932. Good luck selling that here (nt)

[PDittie]

8. Extremely doubtful

for a generation or two. But Texas CAN be won much sooner, and when that happens, the South -- and with it, the GOP -- are immediately irrelevant. I would think this scenario is particularly important to accomplish if the SCOTUS strikes down the VRA.

[rhett o rick]

9. DINO's for sure can. Can progressives? I doubt it. nm

[Mass]

10. Brand vs content.

Sadly, it seems the Democratic Party is ready to accept anybody who wants to come in, whatever they stand for.

So, yes, the Democratic Party can win the Deep South back. The question is: "What Democratic Party?".

I am not saying a true Democrat could not win. I am just concerned that the natural inclination will be to run former Republicans who change party because the GOP has move too far to the right or because it is not that popular.

[Scuba]

11. I'm not sure Democrats can win anywhere. They're alienating voters everywhere.

[bahrbearian]

17. Becasue they act like Repugs

[Scuba]

19. Sometimes I think they are Repugs.

[Rod Walker]

12. Unlikely at best.

[LonePirate]

13. The GA info is interesting. It could be a swing state in 2016 which effectively hobbles the GOP

Making the Repubs campaign in GA instead of other places like MI, OH, PA, or WI would itself be a win. As soon as GA or TX becomes reliably purple, the Repubs have no clear path to victory whatsoever.

[carolinayellowdog]

21. is it changing fast in the right direction

the demographics look extremely encouraging with the trend irreversible

[Recursion]

14. Huh? Starkville is one of the bluest towns in the state

I question some of that background reporting. The mayor's an old high school friend of mine and to my knowledge never really faced a serious challenge from what's-his-name.

[bahrbearian]

16. We need Deans 50 state strategy back

[Recursion]

29. We still fund all state parties

That's the 50 state strategy. I'm not sure what people think that phrase means.

Also, when it works, it winds up electing the blue dogs that its proponents then complain about loudly.

[ananda]

20. With all the gerrymandering and racism here in Texas..

.. I just don't know.

But we can sure try!

[backwoodsbob]

23. of course we can win back the south

we just have to show that we are the party of the common man...something we have been woefully bad at lately.

If we had listened to Howard Dean in 2008 with his common sense politics and his vision we wouldn't be in this mess.
I wish I could go back to 2008 and vote for Dean

[kentuck]

25. Can Democrats win back the most northern of the Southern States?

IN, KY, WV, MO, and VA? That will be the turning point for our Party when that happens. VA and MO have slipped somewhat to the Democrats but there is a long way to go in the other states.

[carolinayellowdog]

30. Clinton did well in KY,WV,TN

Scroll through the maps in reverse time and you can see how recently KY, WV, and TN went for Clinton twice-- and how many southern states Carter carried in 1976.

[graham4anything]

27. Hillary will win 500 plus electoral votes in 2016, and her coattails will make a revolution

and it shall be an 80-20 legislative passage from that point forward

building today moving forward to a new tomorrow

Which is why the those against the President are doing all they can to attempt to prolong the enevitable debate, but its also why 95% of the democratic party just doesn't care about the petty issues smears dejour.