Can Democrats Win Back the Deep South?

The Atlantic ^ | June 23, 2013 | Molly Ball

[NotYourAverageDhimmi]

In the coming weeks, Hanauer and Loranne Ausley, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, plan to launch something they're calling the Southern Project, which will conduct research and formulate messages that can help Democrats win over Southern voters. A pilot study conducted in North Carolina in February, for example, concluded that under the state's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, "there is a clear sense that hardworking taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick at the expense of big corporations and the wealthiest." The set of talking points advises progressives to make arguments "focused around fairness and accountability," whether the issue is tax reform or charter schools. The Southern Project will equip Southern Democrats with similar examples of messages that have been poll-tested to resonate with voters.

Obama lost North Carolina by just 2 percentage points in 2012, but Republicans took the governor's mansion and a supermajority in the state legislature, helped by a multimillionaire named Art Pope who poured money into the party and its candidates. After the election, McCrory put Pope in his administration's budget department and began pushing a highly ideological agenda through the state legislature, sparking a backlash that has resulted in weeks of protests at the statehouse in Raleigh.

Ausley, who ran unsuccessfully for statewide office in Florida in 2010, said Republicans across the South risk alienating voters with their hard rightward turn. Every Republican-led Southern state has rejected the federally funded expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, she noted; in Florida, Governor Rick Scott tried to accept the funds, but his own Republican-dominated legislature blocked the move. Southern Republicans have recently decried women's entry into the workforce and advocated teaching schoolchildren about proper gender roles.

"Republican legislators are going further than the Southern public wants. There's going to be a backlash."

[By and By]

Liberals are not idiots. They can both spank the monkey and pick their nose at the same time. They are natural multi-tasking nimrods.

[JCBreckenridge]

How did that work out for him?

[Mark17]

Easily! All they have to do is take in a few million more illegals. America is already dead.

Roger that. We are almost dead now, amnesty for illegal aliens will assure that comes true.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Hmmm...let’s see:
1. You can murder your baby up until the 36th month — no questions asked. We might even let you murder your baby after he is born.
2. Free Obamafones for all.
3. Enjoy your new Mexican or Muslim neighbors.
4. Enroll your son in the New Gay Scounts.
5. Let us teach your 8 year old daughter “sex is fun.”

Yeah, that’ll work.

[cripplecreek]

Well folks in the south did vote for him but he didn’t win north or south. LOL

[freedomfiter2]

I remember Karl Rove literally laughing about the fact that Romney couldn’t win any primary races in the south. He said they will vote for him when there are no other choices.

That’s why it’s important to teach the GOP that they can’t count on votes in the general election when they run libs like HW Bush, Dole, McCain ,and Romney.

[andyk]

Well, I can’t disagree with that statement.

[JCBreckenridge]

Maybe we should listen to Rove more.

[hal ogen]

rove should not be listened to...look at the election results since he has been there. rove should be shunned.

[Theoria]

Correcto. Demographics changes everything.

[Nextrush]

Si Si Puede

[cripplecreek]

We need all true conservatives united in conservatism. I don’t really care where they’re from as long as they’re American. Heck, FR is based in the heart of darkness.

Personally I think stronger conservatives are made where they have to fight for it every day.

[Fiji Hill]

I remember Karl Rove literally laughing about the fact that Romney couldn't win any primary races in the south. He said they will vote for him when there are no other choices.

That persistent fallacy that conservatives will have to vote for the RINO because they have no other place to go ignores the fact that they can--and sometimes do--go fishing on Election Day when faced with a tweeeledee-tweedledum choice.

[JCBreckenridge]

“rove should be shunned.”

You’d turn your back to him? Brave man.

[Nemoque]

How the democrats can win the South plan:
1) Talk about gun control.
2) Talk about same-sex marriage.
3) Talk about the joys of Atheism.
4) Talk about post-birth abortion.
5) Talk about how much Southerners hate blacks.
6) Talk about all the rednecks in NASCAR
7) Talk about the need for big government.
8) Talk about the evils of the Civil War.

[JCBreckenridge]

Hey, don’t blame me. I voted for Kodos.

[carlo3b]

.... and the fork ran away with the spoon...

I’ve heard most of the old ones, and unless you have something new to bring to the table, I think I’ll take another nap.. :)

[Artcore]

Yep..useful idiots are everywhere.

[Conspiracy Guy]

“Republican legislators are going further than the Southern public wants. There’s going to be a backlash.”

What a maroon. Must think Florida is the south.

[lowbridge]

"there is a clear sense that hardworking taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick at the expense of big corporations and the wealthiest."

"there is a clear sense that hardworking taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick at the expense of big government and the politicians."

Fixed for accuracy.