According to Research 2000, Barack Obama has a 13% national-poll lead on John McCain. According to SurveyUSA, John McCain has a 27% lead in Alabama. George Wallace used to be the governor of Alabama. Here is what George Wallace did to John Lewis:
Lewis put his life on the line at several of the best-known battlegrounds in the modern African American struggle for equal rights. He was arrested numerous times for acting on his beliefs. Lewis was one of a small group of men and women who protested the segregation of interstate bus terminals in 1961 by traveling in integrated groups through the South. These Freedom Rides attracted national attention. When Lewis and others were attacked by white segregationists at a bus station in Montgomery, Alabama, they made national headlines and publicized the plight of blacks under a racially segregated social order.
Here is a pictorial representation of what George Wallace did to John Lewis. Jim Zwerg is checking how many teeth he has left.
You can read about what George Wallace did to Jim Zwerg here, and you should never forget what John Lewis and Jim Zwerg did for justice and human rights. There should be statues commemorating their efforts in every town square, because they are the living embodiment of human courage and righteousness. So, when John McCain says that John Lewis is one of his personal heroes, that is a point in John McCain’s favor. But when John Lewis warns John McCain that:
Wallace “never fired a gun,” Lewis added, “but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed. . . . Senator McCain and Governor Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.”
…he knows what he’s talking about. McCain and Palin’s scurrilous and inciteful attacks may still play in modern-day Alabama, but they don’t play outside the south. Again, let’s look at the Research 2000 poll:
McCAIN/OBAMA
NORTHEAST 28 65
SOUTH 53 41
MIDWEST 38 55
WEST 39 53
It looks to me like the Southern Strategy has evolved to the point that it is a strictly southern strategy, with no salience outside of that region. I don’t want to pick on the South, but the numbers tell a story. The rest of the country has moved on past the politics of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. On November 4th, the country will ratify the official end of successful George Wallace-politics…whether Alabama likes it, or not.
Hey, it’s the Southern strategy + Utah.
But really, it’s the white bigot strategy.
I like the LBJ Tapes. Follow the link to hear Johnson negotiating with Wallace to protect the Selma marchers in 1965.
+Idaho!
It’s funny. The last poll here in Kentucky only had McSame up by 10 (Rassmussen 9/30), and that was 2 weeks ago. Obama might even be closer now.
I’m not saying Kentucky’s going to go Obama, but like Georgia I have to believe it’s in play now, along with WV (and of course Virginia and North Carolina.)
I mean if McSame can only muster states like Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Utah, do they even count as a regional party?
Wyoming
Utah
Idaho
Western Nebraska
Kansas
Oklahoma
Texas (a world unto itself, neither exclusively South or West)
Tennessee
Alabama
South Carolina
Oh yes, Alaska
There are cracks in other states
North Dakota
West Virginia
The campaigning in southeastern Ohio and southern Indiana will spill over into northern Kentucky, and the campaigning in southwestern Virginia will spill over into southeastern Kentucky
Georgia
Mississippi
Louisiana
Arkansas (a spillover from Missouri plus a still active Democratic Party mourning the loss of it’s executive director)
Possibly Arizona
I don’t think you can argue that it is a regionalist election anymore. The Southern Strategy, a regional strategy, has failed because of the success of urbanization in the so-called “New South” and because the textile industry has been wiped out in the Carolinas. Another factor has been the Democratic National Committee playing into the Southern Strategy prior to Howard Dean taking over the helm. It will take a few more years to rebuild some of the state Democratic Parties, but we are well on the way.
The 50-State Strategy trumps the Southern Strategy and takes regionalism out of the mix. What is left is pure ideology, whipped up by talk radio and Fox TV. The remaining red states are those dominated by areas in which Fox and Rush have no local competing voices. Nonetheless, the growing popularity of progressive talk among truckers is beginning to change even these areas. But too slowly to make a difference this year.
Yes but also the Democrats had effectively ceded the South to the Republicans for a long time. Without any opposition, the Republicans drift further and further to the right…
That’s the difference. And some states are moving blue rapidly. Others are a slog.
If we win this election, the Southern Strategy is over.
In fact, a regionalist strategy is over as well.
And yes, I know all too well how the Democrats ceded the South by not putting in resources and how cowardly Southern elected officials magnified the slander by not appearing on the same stage with national Democratic candidates. Had they appear on stage, it would have communicated that “this candidate is OK” not worthy of shunning.
. . . at your own risk.
When the kitchen is on fire, the whole house is in danger.
I can’t help fantasizing about what a great country this would be if the Confederacy had broken away. From the beginning, the South has been the kudzu in the American tomato patch. I’d miss New Orleans and Memphis, but would nonetheless favor letting them vote on secession, even today.
Dave, no, just no. I could launch a rant on you but I’m just going to say, no.
Are you forgetting the slaves that were liberated in that pesky little war?
How long would slavery have lasted without that war? What could have been negotiated in return for enabling a Confederate nation? Which states would have opted to join the secession if allowed to decide? How long before slaves, mountain people and the other victims of Southern feudalism rose up and eliminated the plantation class? It’s not like the slaves got this great deal after the war — their descendents have had to fight for every little scrap of freedom and equality that followed.
But my question was much simpler: is the South a net positive or negative in the development of United States politics and culture? From that perspective I think we’d have probably been better off without it. I guess it depends on whether you think European-style social democracy is something to be desired.
I don’t know. I welcome all 50 states, including Hawaii. Having a country on our borders as hostile as an unadulterated Confederate States of America would not be desirable, in my book.
What year is it now?
Culturally, the US would be far poorer without the south. Let’s not forget that most indiginous American music had its roots there–the blues, country, rock and roll, etc. On top of that you have the food, as well as one of the richest areas for literature.
but if we stopped enforcing fugitive slave laws the blacks would have just moved up here.
Why didn’t we just stop enforcing the fugitive slave laws? That would have inspired most of them to run away!
I think everyone’s seen this by now, but if not then here’s someone who shares that point of view: rude link
I don’t want to pick on the South
good
’cause the first black Governor was elected in Virginia
whenever you see iconic photos of the civil rights era it is always the South. You never see photos of that angry mob of white parents attacking the school bus filled with black children during the desegregation of the Boston schools. Just sayin’
A family friend did tell them to shove it.
She said when the newscrews stopped filming she beat on them some more.
When Mrs. Annie Lee Cooper, a huge woman, remarked that “there ain’t nobody scared around here,” Clark pushed her so hard that she lost her balance. She rose up, punched the sheriff to his knees, and then slugged him again. A deputy grabbed her from behind, but she stamped on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach and then knocked Clark down a second time. At last three deputies subdued Mrs. Cooper and held her fast as Clark beat her methodically with his billy club, ignoring the newsmen and their cameras.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1982/4/1982_4_48.shtml