I came across a rather interesting article by Bob Moser called
The Way Down South , which is taken from the February 12, 2007 issue of The Nation.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070212&s=moserSouthern politics has seen a shift from the traditional Democratic populism centred on economic fairness towards a new Republican populism based on white cultural unity, in which the enemy is no longer the greedy corporate “Big Mules” (Jim Folsom) but the broad coalition of “pointy-headed intellectuals” (George Wallace).
Moser points out that while Nixon carried Dixie with 70% of the vote in 1972, the infusion of Southern black voters together with white moderates and liberals was encouraging in that ten of the eleven Confederate states had moderate-to-progressive governors, most of whom, such as Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Reubin Askew of Florida were calling for both economic fairness and racial reconciliation.
Nevertheless, despite such promising starts at the state level, Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” created an opportunity for Democrats, which they failed to take. This would have been seen the party adapting the South’s economic populist tradition
“into a fresh, class-based politics with broad appeal to blacks and whites alike, directly challenging the politics of cultural fear and racial unity”. In a nutshell, Moser provides a critique of both:
1. The national Democrats who have effectively written off Dixie by saying forget the South
2. The abandonment of economic populism in favor of a more Clintonian centrist or “me too approach”
He refers to these as the false dilemmas that Democrats have long believed about the South. Indeed, Moser describes that the chasm, which supposedly yawns between Southern ideology and national norms,
“is widely, though routinely, overstated”. In 2003 in a study of Southern political attitudes, pollster Scott Keeter, found that Southerners trended to the right on racial issues, immigration and the use of military force, they were also just as likely to favor government regulation, strong environmental protection and social welfare.
Bearing in the mind of the results of the 2006 midterms, Moser argues that Democrats
“who bucked the script and offered Southerners a frank, unqualified brand of economic populism … were more successful than the Clinton clones”. For Moser this is best exemplified by the success of the under-funded Jim Webb in Virginia and the failure of the lavishly funded Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee.
In essence, Moser’s argument is that by reasserting economic fairness
“as the central ‘moral’ issue of politics” , Democrats can move past their false dilemmas since this would be the key to:
1. Attracting moderate evangelicals increasingly fed up with the narrowness and corruption of Republican “values”
2. Firing up black voters in the South, who take a back seat to no-one as strong Bible believers
Furthermore, such a fresh progressive “moral populism” can also help sway a lasting majority of Hispanics into the Democratic fold
Moser says that for Democrats to emphasise
“the ‘value’ of economic fairness (along with other Democratic issues popular with moderate evangelicals, including environmental stewardship) could help bridge those moral and pragmatic concerns – and help Democrats forge a new progressive coalition that cuts through racial divisions”. Moser concludes by saying that in surrendering the South, Democrats have:
1. Abandoned the old hope of a durable national progressive majority
2. Allowed right-wingers to build a mighty fortress for the defense of free-market excess in a region that is home top almost half – 47% - of the Americans who call themselves populists
3. Allowed economic, racial and cultural divisions to fester
Moser finished by quoting Chris Kromm, director of the liberal Institute for Southern studies in Durham, North Carolina, who says:
“For Democrats to turn their back on a region that is half to all African Americans and a growing number of Latinos call home, a place devastated by Hurricane Katrina, plant closings, poverty and other indignities – in short for progressives to give up on the very place where they could argue they are needed most – would rightfully be viewed as a historic retreat from the party’s commitment to justice for all”. Any thoughts? Is economic populism the way forward for Democrats if they are to broaden their appeal in the South? Dave
