Mark Kennedy is the son-in-law of George Wallace. He’s also the newly elected chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party. Those two facts, taken together, might make you a bit wary, but Mr. Kennedy is not following in his father-in-law’s footsteps.
The first step for Kennedy: Admit defeat. Kennedy said Alabama voters spoke clearly in the last election.
“But they didn’t just speak in Alabama,” he said. “They spoke all over the country. If you look from Texas to Georgia, every Southern state suffered the same consequences. Democrats were swept out of office in all of the Deep South.”
But it was not just an issue of geography, he said.
“A lot of it had to do with a philosophy of dividing us on racial grounds,” he said. “That’s so much a part of what Southern politics used to be. And if we don’t stem the tide, that’s what it’s going to be again. That’s the war we’re fighting in Alabama, and we can’t afford to lose.”
Kennedy has a five-point plan for revitalizing the Democratic Party in his home state. Some of his plans are a bit surprising. For example, he wants Democrats to stop running away from the president and, instead, embrace him.
“Next year, we’re going to be proud to stand by Barack Obama as our nominee,” Kennedy said. “He is a good president. He is a good Democrat. And he’s worthy of consideration — more importantly, he’s worthy of our praise.”
He wants to hone the Democrats’ message and get a grassroots organization started in every county (kind of a miniature 50-state plan). He also wants to aggressively target party switchers and get people fired up to fight for every vote.
I like what he’s saying but I don’t think he’ll have a lot of success unless he finds a way to re-brand the Democratic Party. Democrats lost every statewide office last November, and they lost control of the legislature for the first time in 136 years. They used to be able to rely on the fact that they were the Establishment. After redistricting, those days will be gone. The Deep South is a very different place from the rest of the country. Just take a look at their brewing laws. They are about to get microbreweries (brewpubs) for the first time, but you still won’t be able to buy beer in them to take home with you. Alabama is a very culturally conservative place, and it’s hard for any politician to ignore or try to change that.
In my humble Yankee opinion, the only way for Alabama Democrats to overcome the racial/Christianized/anti-Washington rhetoric of Fox News, talk radio, and the GOP is to adopt a competing form of populism. Effective populism in Alabama probably has to be presented in a scriptural context. One of Jesus’s favorite words was “hypocrites,” and it’s a word that should used liberally to describe how the Republicans operate as the party of big business and corporate interests while pretending to represent core American values. It’s easy for people to understand hypocrisy when they see someone like David Vitter espousing family values while he frequents brothels behind his wife’s back. But is Sen. Richard Shelby any less of a whore-monger the way he serves the banking industry? If Republicans make bashing Washington DC their mantra, the Democrats should do the same with Wall Street. The mantra is “they’re ripping you off, and the Republicans are in bed with them.”
Alabama Democrats should be promising to go after the mortgage industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, the too-big-to-fail fat cats that game the system so that they make money when we lose it.
There is no point in playing defense on God, gays, guns, and immigration. All of that is a distraction so people won’t realize they’re being ripped off. That is all Fox News and hate radio is, too. Don’t get played for a sucker. Don’t be a dupe of The Man.
But being anti-corporate doesn’t mean being anti-business. Democrats need to be the party of youth. Young adults want brew pubs, and they want to be able to buy a six-pack or a growler and take it home with them. They want college loans and grants. They’re not as conservative about race or gays. Democrats need to aggressively fight for a youth agenda, and brand the GOP as the party of old folks. Republicans are uptight. They’re stuck in the mud. They’re not cool. They’re always trying to tell you what to do, but they do what they want when no one is looking.
I think there is an opportunity for strands of progressivism in the Deep South, too. Certainly, getting Wall Street money out of elections is an acceptable rhetorical position to take down there.
What I am confident about is that the Democrats will continue to lose in Alabama, and lose badly, if they don’t adopt an alternative form of populism. The Blue Dog model is good for attracting campaign financing, but that’s the problem. If the Democrats are the party of not only Washington but Wall Street as well, then the GOP is actually a little better. And, since the GOP’s positions on social issues comport better with Alabama’s sensibilities, it’s really not a contest.
Populism is the only answer for Democrats in the Deep South.
