The Hill talked to southern Democrats to get their ideas about why the party isn’t doing well in the South. But it doesn’t seem to me like they really hit on any solutions (unless you consider running as an independent to be a solution).
Southern voters “see the Democratic Party as a liberal institution that wants to spend their money recklessly, that doesn’t honor their social values and that has a very different view of the world,” said Alabama Rep. Artur Davis (D).
I don’t know that Southerners are really upset by ‘reckless spending.’ The Blue Dogs are convinced that this is the case, but the most popular Republicans in the South are known for their ability to bring home the bacon, not slash government spending. On the other hand, maybe saturation exposure to Fox News and hate radio is turning the South into a place that not only hates the federal government but their money, too.
I do think it’s true that people in the South are convinced that the coastal elites don’t respect their social values and culture. And, the more coastal the Democratic Party becomes the stronger the sense of estrangement can become. It can even infect the Upper Midwest and the northern suburbs.
I am more interested in how southern Democrats can win by genuinely differing from the national party. And I don’t mean on social issues, because they are doing that already and it either isn’t working or it is insufficient. I think it would be nice if a Alabaman Democrat could say, “Hey, I’m nothing like Nancy Pelosi. Did she recommend liquidating Goldman Sachs and giving every voter a check? Did she call for balancing the budget by imposing day-trading fees?”
Or, you know, whatever scary over the top anti-Wall Street populism you can come up with.
Or we can keep on doing what we’ve been doing, hoping for a different result.
