The "redneck-blackneck politics of the Deep South"

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

A bit old but I thought that this was an interesting article.


http://www.salon.com/2011/08/24/race_deep_south/

[Indy Texas]

The late 20th century "Democratic consensus" in state-level Southern politics is a curious phenomenon. Other than "legacy Republican" areas like the Appalachian portions of Tennessee and North Carolina, the only place you really found primary-voting Republicans in the South was in the wealthy, white suburbs abutting major Southern cities.

That coalition probably peaked sometime in the late '80s and early '90s, when you saw the election of some unabashedly liberal Democrats like Ann Richards in Texas and Zell Miller in Georgia (prior to 1994, he was firmly in the liberal wing of the party), and of a black liberal Democrat, Doug Wilder, in Virginia.

After the Republican Revolution, the GOP had siphoned off enough white support that it was no longer possible for the Democrats to build a reliable electoral majority with a black-urban-liberal core buttressed by rural whites. Where it was, it depended on legal loopholes (Musgrove's election by the state legislature), or on a built-up cache of family name goodwill (the Landrieus in Louisiana and the Pryors in Arkansas).

Sadly, it's clear that racial polarization has significantly diminished the caliber of candidates in Southern races. During the period of transition the article discusses, you saw accomplished Republicans who did not rely on race-baiting or white fear rhetoric (Gil Carmichael and Thad Cochran in Mississippi; Guy Millner in Georgia; Alan Steelman in Texas; Carroll Campbell in South Carolina) and moderate and center-left Democrats of both races who largely avoided identity politics (Ray Mabus in Mississippi; Doug Wilder in Virginia; Joe Frank Harris in Georgia). Today, by contrast, you have Republicans who implicitly or explicitly prey on racial antagonism (Nathan Deal in Georgia; Phil Bryant in Mississippi) and Democrats who offer little appeal outside the black community or large cities (Johnny DuPree, Vivian Figures and the other sacrificial lambs).