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.

[Guillermo]

There are rednecks in *every* single county in this country.

[wimpycat]

Newspaper? You cretin! You need red and white corncobs. You use the red one first, then you use the white one to see if you need another red one. Or you need a Sears Roebuck catalog. Newspaper?! You'll end up with a black butt.

[eyespysomething]

And put yore teeth in if yore a-goin' up the street.

Awww, paw. I dun tol ya, mawz usin' em ta clean tha outhouse. Aw maw, wait fer cfc_vrwc ta finish this time. Weez dun ru outta tha sears catty-log pages I reckin'.

[dead]

I really don't think of rednecks as a southern thing. Every American who lives more than fifty miles away from Manhattan is a redneck. Except people in California, who are just complete weirdos.

My views may be a bit parochial. 8-)

[Corin Stormhands]

I'm fittin'ta go yonder and git muhself sum moonpies and nehi.

Faker.

Eny self-respectin' Southron knows its Moonpies and R.C. Cola...

[1Old Pro]

Like I said on another post, that sound we're hearing is not a bunch of grits eat'n southerners screaming at a nascar race, it's the sound of Howard Dean IMPLODING.

[Coop]

Eny self-respectin' Southron knows its Moonpies and R.C. Cola...

Royal Crown cola! Out of Jawjah.

[teldon30]

That's R. O. C. Co Cola

...get it right ;)

[stainlessbanner]

"A Southern Man don't need him around anyhow...."

[Arpege92]

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

Or upstate New York. Walden New York to be exact....them's people tend to run short on teeth and the gene pool is smaller than the gene pool from Gilligan's Island. Do you suppose that's why their eyes are too far apart?

[StriperSniper]

Don't forget our own Pineys. ;-)

[MrConfettiMan]

[wimpycat]

Hey, that's my cousin!

[StriperSniper]

Royal Crown cola! Out of Jawjah.

I think they have embargoed us up here in NJ, I haven't been able to get that since I was a kid. It disappeared right after they took it out of Shea Stadium. :(

[eyespysomething]

** GASP **

You suh, are sullyin' the honuh of a lady. Ah declare ah think ah feel a touch of faint comin' on. Ah'm goin' ta lie down now. You suh, are a cad.




Besides, I love grape nehi!!!!

[Paulus Invictus]

Oh, he didn't apologize, except to say he used "clumsy language" but that the problem still exists in the South. What a maroon!

[smith288]

No kidding... I have an uncle named Uncle Boyd (not bad) his live in Aunt Cletus (haha)

There is also a Roy Lee. I think this family moved up from Jackson county which explains it.

They are mostly good people though.

[Coop]

I think they have embargoed us up here in NJ, I haven't been able to get that since I was a kid. It disappeared right after they took it out of Shea Stadium. :(

Sorry to hear that. I'm enjoying a Diet Rite - the original diet soda! - at this moment.

[cwb]

"Yeah, the people in those states are hicks too!"

It's funny you mention this. After growing up in blue-collar, suburban Detroit (now in Florida), I can safely say that I saw more "rednecks" in the North than I do in this region of the South. There was no shortage of torn apart cars and refrigerators on front porches in "Downriver" Michigan.

[Billthedrill]

It wasn't just south of the Mason-Dixon line where people were shaking their heads. With one stunningly inept statement Dean has demonstrated that he's not ready for political prime-time. The magnitude of the error cannot be underestimated - you lose the South, you lose the presidency. Period. And he just did.