[Over the course of the years we've spent organizing and supporting the Progressive netroots in Virginia, Raising Kaine has encountered a number of articles, papers, and books that stand above the rest for their potential influence and import within our community. The Progressive Book Club (PBC) is an effort to provide the community with the opportunity to explore and discuss some of our favorites.]
We can't repeat this enough. In order for Democrats to earn the right to represent all Americans, we must stand up for the interests of ALL Americans. Despite the failed beliefs of "bluestate" Dems, that includes lower-income, less-educated, rural whites. Glen Browder is the source for the where, why and how. His powerful and insightful THE REAL SOUTHERN PROBLEM AND MY DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S FUTURE is the subject of our first Progressive Book Club, largely because this was the article I read on the way to my first meeting with Jim Webb in the Winter of 2005.
Former Alabama Congressman, Glen Browder, PhD. served from 1989 to 1997. He now serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School (1997 - present), and as Eminent Scholar in American Democracy at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
Here's how he opens "The Real Southern Problem":
I'm a southern white Democrat who's not interested in switching parties, launching petty recriminations, or sitting in silent stupor while things deteriorate beyond repair.
Writing in the 2005 aftermath of Bush's re-election, Browder lays out the critical need for a Democratic "Southern Strategy", and the disastrous mistake Democrats have made in abandoning southerners to the Republican party.
In short, I believe that the Democratic Party's real problem is (1) its inability or refusal to acknowledge the historic, systemic dynamics of southern and national politics, and (2) its stubborn reluctance regarding a potentially workable southern solution to our entrenching national troubles.[...]
While they realize that we need heartland votes, these extremely Blue Democrats (I'll call them BluDems for short) reflexively and awkwardly flinch every time someone suggests that the Democratic Party's future may course through Dixie.
[...]
John Kerry unfortunately articulated a speculative variation of that reasoning shortly thereafter, proclaiming in a Dartmouth College speech that "Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South
Looking South isn't a mistake. It's a critical component of understanding and representing America and Americans. Without the South, Democrats can never attain an enduring majority. It's the Democrats' failure to comprehend the needs and values of Southern voters that is the real threat to our fortunes, not any shortcoming of Southern voters themselves.
The most irritating aspect of our party's Blue Conceit is a paralyzing conviction of angry, bewildered, self-serving righteousness that blinds us to historical reality and impedes corrective action for our future. To wit: "Dammit! We cannot believe so many redneck idiots voted for that boob! But we will prevail because we are America!"[...]
A cosmopolitan Democrat (while dog-walking in internationalized Manhattan) shared his mixture of disdain and disappointment:
I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country-the heartland ?This kind of redneck, shootfrom- the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country-in the heartland.
Browder provides any number of quotes expressing "BlueDem" "disdain", but moves along to a powerful and reasonable premise: LOOK SOUTH!
I believe, for very practical and civic reasons, that the road to "Red America", and eventually toward Democratic national renaissance, must run through the South.
In order to overcome the general sense that the Democratic party is "ailing", "split", "shaky", "soul searching", "clueless", and "heading in the wrong direction", Browder provides first reasons why Dems must reclaim Dixie, and then lays out the way forward.
Electoral College Bounty. The most compelling argument for my new strategic
roadmap is the obvious fact that the Old Confederacy possesses over half the Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency;Ideological Functionality. Apparently, the Democratic presidential candidate or message that moves significant portions of voters among these eleven states also resonates with constituencies in border and battleground states of "Red America"; contrarily, any Democratic candidate/message that totally ignores the core South inevitably weakens the campaign in key areas outside this region.
Institutional Considerations. Democratic efforts in southern locales tend to strengthen the national party's ability to recruit candidates, train workers, and raise money;
Civic Duty. Most importantly for the long run, however, the Democrats should reengage the South because any party that aspires to lead America ought to have a national message and constituency.
That's the why. Now for the how.
First, Democrats must understand that new Southern politics in the midst of a revolutionary change, the effects of which could be PERMANENT!!! Browder calls this "Rational Nationalization".
Rational Nationalization. White and black southerners now are experiencing, essentially, a rational regional alignment with the national parties, a logical normalization of politics similar to that of the rest of the nation. In that process of rational nationalization, both southern politics and American democracy are being transformed; and the United States is developing a real two-party system with Republicans pretty much in charge. As a southern politician and academician during the past few decades, I've always been amazed that the Democratic Party never seemed to grasp southern strategic history and the power of cultural considerations in the southern mentality.Did they ever question why both whites and blacks in this region voted Democratic for so long during the latter half of the past century? Did they realize that this pattern inevitably would end? Did the Democratic national leadership just assume that everybody down here would forever vote outdated partisan loyalties? And why didn't somebody notice long ago that Democratic officials were disappearing from the southern political landscape?
Whatever their reasons, Democratic leaders apparently ignored or accepted these regional trends; and the South has become a Republican bastion. Democrats are competitive in certain circumstances and in various locals, but they generally and increasingly are relegated to "holding on" and minority status.
Furthermore, we now find ourselves as the loyal opposition in most forums of public power in a rational/national two-party system.
Breaking largely along race lines, southern voters are aligning race-to-party, and that leaves Democrats in the permenant minority.
In the long run, it may be true that America is changing in ways that favor the Democratic Party, even without southern support; but I would not bet on such a strained, deterministic unfolding of partisan destiny. And statistically, the BluDems are right-a Democrat can win the presidency without any southern state, and the Democrats can take over the House and Senate without a single southern member; but neither scenario is realistic. Thus, we are-absent sufficient and stable white southern support-a minority party into the foreseeable future.
So, what to do?
1. Understand "Rational Nationalization".
2. Confront "BluDem Conceit".
3. Develop and Implement a "New Southern Strategy".
Considering historical and systemic constraints, the Democratic Party's realistic options must begin with aggressive reconceptualization, reconfiguration, and retargeting of the huge mass of southern voters. We don't need to chase every right-wing redneck or carry the entire region; all we need to do is pick off two, three, or four relatively moderate states-such as Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia-as has been done by the only successful Democratic presidential candidates in the past half century.
Here is Browder's 4 part plan for Democrats to re-take the South:
Embracing the Moderate South. Embracing the South means accepting a land of endearing charm, enduring pride, raucous progress, entrenched poverty, stubborn prejudice, surprising diversity, and countless contradictions. Southerners can be maddeningly distractive, with strange foods, syrupy dialects, and an odd assortment of icons and folkways. This is going to be a tough but rewarding endeavor for outsiders, so perhaps BluDem partisans should approach this assignment with the same sense of intellectual curiosity and cultural respect accorded other distinct groups and constituencies invited into the party coalition.Embracing the South does not entail pandering to ignorant, racist rednecks; nor does this strategy require that we nominate Bubba for the Presidency. It does mean "aggressively", "genuinely", and "comfortably" reaching out-while maintaining our historic principles and integrity-to white southerners.
Venturing into the Guy-Zone. Serious Democratic presidential candidates inevitably have to venture into the Guy-zone of white southern culture-guns, God, and Old Glory; and whoever enters that zone also had better walk the walk and talk the talk reasonably well to comfort a skeptical bunch of southern hunters, preachers, and patriots.
Balancing Values and Economics. Beyond specific issues, I believe that most southerners feel relatively comfortable in their lives; however, they are uncomfortable with what's happening in American society. It may be ironic considering the South's historic poverty, but cultural values (such as faith, family, community, and patriotism) trump economic issues among most whites and among many African-American and Hispanic voters in this region.
As long as Democratic candidates and the party ignore or insult traditional values (while noisily preoccupied with such issues as abortion and gay rights), the South will vote Republican.
Heartland Policy Agenda. ... the party should develop a high profile policy agenda aimed specifically at the problems that afflict so many citizens in rural areas and small towns of heartland America. For example, we could launch a health initiative for working families, children, and senior citizens who live their lives beyond the advantages and services of urban society. We can offer a new medical infrastructure plan including state-of-the-art health facilities, diagnostic services, and research/education programs for those areas. More
generally, we might consider expanding our party's commitment to the middle class, such as Medicare for everybody or at least realistic national health insurance that helps with catastrophic illness and long-term care.Furthermore, while the Republican Party has focused effectively on international terrorism and expanding freedom, the Democratic Party can push aggressively and convincingly on universal domestic issues, such as social security, educational opportunity, job protection, tax fairness, political reform, and homeland defense-all of which resonate in this part of American society.
Very simply, I believe (based on my own experience and solid, contemporary polling data) that culturally-embraced southerners and heartland voters of moderate temperament may welcome such outreach endeavors.
Browder's 4 points go a long way in pointing the Democratic direction into the Moderate south. This is a powerful undertaking critical if our party is to emerge and potentially endure as the American majority. Ceding the south to the Republican party is a losing proposition, but the real enemy is us. As Democrats we must face and revile our own conceit.
We must engage moderate rural whites with respect, not only because they represent the critical transitional group for an Enduring Democratic majority, but because they have earned our respect and they deserve it.
Every one of us is a general. Every one of us needs to be a pundit, a leader, and a neighbor to get out the message and the vote.
We need to recognize the causes of the disaffection of Southerners and other Americans with our materialistic and spiritually bankrupt culture. It is a culture of dispair and nihilism. The Religious Right wants to offer a cure all that requires the destruction of the world (end-times). We need to offer real hope and not an escape into death.
There are intelligent people out there. The leaders of our government are supporting their opponents. The truth is that it is the Bushites who are the worshipers of death and destruction. Too bad they can't see it. But if they could would they care? I doubt it. Don't look to religious cultists and frog torturers for leadership.
Carl Pope, President of the Sierra Club, made this point again at a rally for Webb with Jim Moran at Webb HQ during the GOTV phase. Just like the Orwellian phrases, Clear Skies (increased pollution), Healthy Forrests (Clear Cutting), and Climate Change (Climate Crisis), the "72 hour plan" doesn't exist. What the Republicans have is a 72 week plan to increase cynicism, "my vote doesn't count", "they're all the same". They reinforce it with punditry, and messaging, and leave voters alienated, despairing and inactive.
Our mission is to subvert that cynicism, give voters a real alternative, show that there's a real difference. Webb was able to do that by standing up for his populist, "Economic Fairness", by embodying real Virginia Values, and projecting his real leadership across the Commonwealth.
Webb is a fighter and a pathfinder who has left a clear pathway and message for Democrats, ourselves included, to follow. There is a difference, and a powerful new direction for Democrats to lead the nation towards. This doesn't just happen at the presidential level or the national level, voters, volunteers, organizers, campaigns and candidates at all levels can take up the call and fight for the future of this country.
It's up to us to subvert their cynicism and change the world.
As Mudcat said at YearlyKos about Tom Schaller's book, Whistling Past Dixie, "Tom Schaller can kiss my Rebel ass."
It is morally wrong to dismiss the almost 102 Million people who live in rural America and whose cultural values are much like the moderate south.
Mudcat and Steve Jarding were Senior Advisors to the Webb campaign, and their book truly is an inspiration. I'm going to work through a number of my favorite articles first and then hit some books. The problem with them is that they may or may not exist free and online.
I've got a backlog of at least 20 articles totally upwards to 400 pages that are available online. That'll carry us through a good part of 2007.
Luckily, however, the non-white population is increasing at rapid rates in the South and are positively influencing the economy and culture of these areas. Even my southern relatives admire the family-oriented, hardworking nature of Hispanics, Arabs, Africans, and Orientals in their community. I think by living side-by-side with each other, many of the sterotypes will fade in time. It is inevitable.
There are southern folks, who would not call themselves racist, but believe that the Republican party will "keep these people in their place" or make efforts to send them back where they came from. And some of these folks, who are religious, are listening with both ears pinned to the TV to hear Dr. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Ministeries)convince them that America was founded by white Christians and that is the way this country needs to be refocused. But I usually find that when choosing between food on the table or buying in to Dr. Kennedy's spiel, they'll suddenly go deaf to his arguments and chose the course to economic security.
I really enjoyed reading this diary. Thank you for the insights. Another book on the wider subject is Thomas Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas? How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America.
For too long, we as a party have allowed the Republicans to define us (weak liberals) and the playing field (devisive social policy). By ceding the South, Democrats allowed these untruths to become entrenched in the culture. Fortunately for us, the ruling majority of Republicans have shown their true colors- sending our husbands and sons to war while denying our families a decent living wage and health care, weakening the public schools for our children, dismantling collective bargaining to the advantage of grossly overpaid CEOs and shipping our jobs overseas, putting African Americans and Latinos in prison at a shocking rate for drug addiction while making excuses for the likes of Limbaugh and Haggard, and purporting to be the carriers of the true faith while cheating on their wives and molesting children. Waving flags will not save them, they have lied and taken advantage of the very people who put them into power. The ultimate disrespect to the rural white voter is the Republican party's smug belief that their constituency is too backwards to realize they are being used, election after election.
But we have to seek out candidates like Webb to connect with these voters. Their BS meters are pretty finely tuned (they untimately rejected Allen, after all). We must respectfully approach all citizens and give them a reason to vote D.
I would challenge Virginians to extrapolate the national experience to the Commonwealth. While NoVA is the 800lb gorilla, they will need respresentatives from south of the Potomac to build a sustaining majority and increase our performance in state wide races. Besides, it's the right thing to do.
But if we deconstruct what he means by saying we must engage white southerners and welcome their values, does that mean that the national Democratic Party must support prayer in public schools, abandon concern for gay rights, back away for support for abortion rights and stem cell research?
Those are the values issues that drive much of the conservative white voters in the South. The South has the highest proportion of evangelicals in the country and they are more influential there than in any other region.
I've said before, those voters are never going to be our constituents. I respect them and their right to vote their conscience. But I disagree with them.
On the other hand, Browder is more right than Tom Schaeller that the Democratic Party would be foolish to "whistle past Dixie."
There are indeed southern states that are more moderate and competitive. But if you look really closely, what makes them competitive for Democrats is that they contain at least one or more areas that are bustling urban centers with lots of recent arrivals of non-Southerners living and working in them.
Florida is a perfect example of a state with a large population of citizens from the Northeast, Midwest, and from other countries, who have settled in South Florida and along the I-4 corridor in Orlando. Those are the voter-rich areas that can carry the state in a statewide or national election.
Another area that is becoming eerily similar in demographics is Northern Virginia, with its influx of new voters who are not native Virginians. Let's face it, it's the changing demographics in Loudon and Prince William, as well as Fairfax, that is turning Virginia blue. Webb won by carrying those areas strongly not by sweeping Southwest.
The type of candidates who appeal to this type of voter is usually moderate, pragmatic, interested in finding solutions to peoples' real problems such as transportation, improving education, the environment, etc., not in furthering the culture wars and banning abortions.
Targeting southern states with similar regions and demographics makes sense. Pandering to Alabama and Mississippi does not.
On the other hand, Democrats can win even in those states by being more conservative than Democrats on a national level. I probably won't agree with the Southern and rural Midwestern Blue Dog Democrats. But I still welcome them into the party and want them to have a place at the table.
But in national elections, we can't placate them and run so far to the right that we alienate more moderate Democrats from other regions of the country.
Republicans have a similar problem with the Northeast and California being more progressive than the rest of their party.
They have been better at tolerating the discrepancy between moderates and progressives like Arnold Schwarzennegger, Olympia Snowe, and Rudy Giulani than we have been. They tote out those moderates at highly televised national conventions to claim that they have "the big tent." But their real leadership has always been the Tom DeLays and Dick Ameys. And they don't worry that in a national election New York is going to go blue on them.
I think the real winning strategy for Democrats is to get beyond culture wars, remain pragmatic and focused on solving peoples' real problems, appealing to moderates in whatever state they live and welcoming those more conservative Democrats who win in conservative leaning states, without necessarily shifting the national party too far right.
That's not Northern elitism. That's the pragmatism born of being a progressive who has lived in two Southern states for over 20 years and having married into a Southern family, which happens to be mostly progressive.
I wonder if anyone has alerted Glen Browder to the fact that those "self-righteous, BlueDem, internationalized, dog-walkers" he finds so distasteful were the people who, by showing up at the polls in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax, elected Jim Webb in Virginia.
Webb's election is a shot across the bow of all of these DLC idjits who were ready to abandon the South, but worse, abandoned the entire mass of America's working families.
Harold Ford was precisely the kind of canidate you're talking about... more Republican than Democratic and much less authentic, regardless of his charisma.
Webb trumped 2005 politics of passivity with his testosterone-laden populism of 2006. The real issue we face, however, is that a movement can't just be a man.
There were a lot of lessons from 2006. The importance of leadership, autenticity, values, progressivism and populism were among them, but so was the critical importance of southern elections.
This isn't an either-or proposition.
We need to bring progressivism to the Southern and Rural voters. It can be done and it's high time we got on with it and quit believing we could just throw our hands up and let the Republicans control the south without a fight. Southern voters deserve better than Republicanism.
It's a practical necessity.
As for his approach, I think it's a credible beginning which ultimately fails to take into account the greater need for Progressive Values Activation of Deep Frames that Lakoff discusses...
The next PBC will be on the full text of George Lakoff's "Thinking Points", which will touch on this directly.