Dean's Southern Strategy: Reaching Out to Hicks, Rednecks, Hillbillies, Crackers & Nascar Fans

November 5, 2003 | Pinochet

[pinochet]

I'll bet that every Southern freeper, who watched Howard Dean in yesterday's CNN debate, could not help but shake his head in amazement. In trying to reach out to the South, Dean did not reach out to Southerners as people, but, instead, he reached out to a stereotype that many Northerners have of the South. It is not just a problem with Northern Democrats; I have seen the same attitude in some North-East Republicans. Everyone should make a point of reading Zell Miller's recent book, which he is now promoting.

All Southerners have ever wanted, is to be treated with respect. They want to be treated as normal people, not as caricatures and freaks. What Howard Dean should have done, is to talk to Southerners in the same manner as he would talk to people in his home state of Vermont, or as he talks to people in Iowa and New Hampshire. When he is reaching out to people in Iowa and New Hampshire, he treats them as regular Americans, not as freaks.

If Dean was smart, he would have focused on his past record as a defender of the second ammendment right to own guns while campaigning in the South, without talking about the Confederate flags and pickup trucks. He could also have talked about immigration, which has resulted in illegal aliens taking the jobs of so many poor Southerners (of all races). He could also have touched on some of the economic nationalism issues, that Pat Buchanan touched on in 1992 and 1996, about corporations shipping blue collar jobs to Mexico and China. And just as he has reached out to farmers in Iowa, he could have promised Southern farmers of more success in selling their products in export markets.

Unfortunately, North Eastern elitists do not see Southerners as normal people, but as backward, ignorant cavemen whom they look down on.

[pinochet]

Many Southerners are so used to hearing North-Eastern elitist prejudices against the South, that they are beyond being offended, and all they can do is shrug in resignation.

Now y'all, I'm goin' cook mah-self some grits.

[Coop]

Put yer shoes on when goin' ta fetch the water.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Shoot. I'm out of Red Man and there's a whole afternoon of chewin to do.

[Coop]

Ah reckon you should wander out to da field and pick you some mo'!

[dead]

What Howard Dean should have done, is to talk to Southerners in the same manner as he would talk to people in his home state of Vermont, or as he talks to people in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Yeah, the people in those states are hicks too!

[eyespysomething]

I'm fittin'ta go yonder and git muhself sum moonpies and nehi. En-yon wa-neny?

[samanella]

I have cocktail napkins that say "We don't care how you did it up North!" And we don't.

[wimpycat]

Watch out for haints! Thar's haints out in them woods.

[KarlInOhio]

Dean has apologized and has started a deep study of Southern culture. He claims that the economy is far more complex than he had previously thought. It seems to be based on oil, moonshine, lye soap and various possum based food products.

[dead]

I have cocktail napkins that say "We don't care how you did it up North!" And we don't.

Alright, if that’s the way you want it - we’ll keep the wonders of dentistry and indoor plumbing to ourselves!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There was some chaw grownin along HW 5 just north of here this summer. Looked like it was hoed by hand.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The really funny part is that the other Dim candidates get to pound on Dean for this, and it didn't help him with southern voters one bit!

[wimpycat]

Pick me up some peanuts to put in my Co-cola. And put yore teeth in if yore a-goin' up the street.

[dead]

The really funny part is that the other Dim candidates get to pound on Dean for this, and it didn't help him with southern voters one bit!

It really worked out great for everybody! Except Dean.

[Guillermo]

Exactly.

Anyone who thinks rednecks only live in the South have obviously never been to Ohio.

[dead]

Or south Jersey.

[CFC__VRWC]

Naw, ah fixin' to go over yonder t' de outhouse wit mah noozpaypuh. 'Course ah cain't read, but ah needs sumpin' to wahpe wit.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Works for me! :)

[wimpycat]

Or Pennsylvania. I almost got run over crossing the street in Gettysburg by some young kid cruisin' on a Saturday night in a big-ass truck complete with gun rack and trailer hitch.

[samanella]

Nothin' agin y'all Yankees, but when y'all truck down 'cher, y'all tend to recollect how ya'll did just everything up North. Shucks, we move slower, so just bless y'all's hearts and we'll get 'round to it, in our own lil' ol' way.