In his recent post Dems Not Playing Identity Politics on DNC Chair, Booman wrote:
Both before and during the campaign I warned that the Republicans would try to get whites to vote as a racial group. I called this strategy various things at different times, finally settling on the Southificaction of the North.
I commented. It grew. Now a standalone post.
Read on.
“The Southificaction of the North.” Not news. I saw it in the mid ’60s.
In all-white working class suburban neighborhoods all around the NYC-plex.
In all-white Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts areas. Most of rural Connecticut, too. And large parts of Vermont.
In the working class areas surrounding Ithaca, NY.
In “southern” towns like York, PA.
And then later…’70s, ’80s. ’90s…all up and down the north-of-DC coast.
All throughout Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia.
North and South Dakota. Kansas.
Minnesota, Iowa. Missouri.
It’s everywhere!!!
There is an irregular line that now separates “The North” from “The South” in a socio-political sense.
A new, more modern Mason-Dixon line.
It looks something like this, only with more small angles.
I call it “The Manson-Nixon” line.
Everything south of that line is majority “southern.”
Everything north of it is majority “northern”…again, in a socio-political sense.
There are isolated circles of a more “northern” sensibility, but mostly…what you see is what you get.
The only thing new in all of this is that the RatPubs managed to get a larger percentage of areas that are sociopolitically “theirs” to vote for them than has happened in many years.
I’m telling you…if the Civil War were to be fought right now, the north would lose and it would lose badly.
Tiime to wake up, Dem folks.
If you do not absolutely revolutionize the party…and soon…so that it reaches many, many more voters south of the Manson-Nixon line…of all races…the RatPub coup de grace is headed your way in about two years. Getting rid of Trump won’t stop it; only a reasoned appeal to the economic realities that are facing the people in the red states will do the trick. Trump will just be replaced by someone…smoother…if he is impeached. Same messages, better tone of voice.
Another centrist DNC won’t do it, either. People north and south of that line will take one look at these two ugly, superannuated faces and head for either the hills or their local Republican ballot box.
It doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to know that their bread it buttered on the other side of the fence.
On the other side of everybody’s fence except their own.
Pelosi comes from a racist, mobbed-up Baltimore political dynasty and Schumer is the Senator from the great states of AIPAC and Wall Street.
Great.
Just what Joe Cowboy, Jane Farmer and Mr. and Mrs. Worker want to hear.
It’s do or die time, folks.
Be as bold as Trump…only honest…and you can still win.
Don’t?
Play it safe?
We all in deep shit.
Bet on it.
Watch.
AG
Perhaps constant harping about “old white men” and “white racism” cause whites to vote as a racial group.
Maybe.
I personally think that as much as anything else…today, not in the not-so-recent past…”:groups” vote more in terms of their own perception regarding the group’s overall economic future.
All kinds of “groups.”
Racial groups, economic groups, religious groups, class groups…you name it.
AG
Just a quick link to another blog I frequent, written by a life-long Republican who defines what a rational, reasonable RINO sounds like.
This particular post I have recently linked to in another Booman thread, but I find the procedural analysis very useful.
Short intro: There are actually three major political parties in the US: The urban elite investor party; the rural populist labor party; and the Southern Conservative party – which has always united to run whichever of the other two major parties it could, in order to get its way.
What we have now is just a transition period.
http://politicalorphans.com/americas-shadow-third-party/
If nothing else AG, I believe that you and I have always seen the same thing, just through a different lens.
To some extent, what the US needs, is a way to push the Southern Conservative party out of BOTH the Republican and Democratic party, or, to create a party that encompasses everyone other than the natural constituents of the Southern Conservative party.
Do that, and you win an electoral landslide, followed by actual progress on behalf of individuals, rather than the further enrichment/empowerment of the oligarchy-attempting-Aristocracy… which is currently d/b/a the PermaGov/Establishment tools you see occupying the government as a right of birth/wealth.
You believe that you and AG have always seen the same thing, but I believe you have different views of what policies you would like to see implemented. As the Ron Paul acolyte he is, AG supports the policies that southern conservatives implement whenever and wherever they can, including reductions in civil and voting rights laws, deep cuts, perversions or eliminations of social welfare programs, and more.
AG has defended those views here many times. It’s worth knowing and remembering about him. It goes quite a bit deeper than different lenses.
I’ve disagreed with AG on numerous occasions, in particular regarding the RonRand Inc. family.
That said, what he sees, and what I see, are essentially the same, just defined and framed differently.