Dean, Other DNC Chair Candidates Campaign for South's Endorsement

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) - Seven candidates for chairman of the Democratic National Committee promised Saturday to address the concerns of Southern voters, saying they had learned the lessons of the past two elections. "You want to know my Southern strategy, show up," said Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who dropped out of the presidential race during last year's Democratic primaries.

Dean and the other candidates seeking to replace Terry McAuliffe as the face of the Democratic Party spoke before a Southern audience at the first of several regional caucuses to give Democratic Party officials a chance to hear from them.

"You can't compete in just 19 or 20 states," said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, another candidate for national party chairman. "You get better odds in Las Vegas than with that program."

Each of the candidates addressed questions on how the Democratic Party can attract women, black and minority voters. None offered to change the party's positions, but all suggested the party needs to focus the issues more.

The chairman's job will be filled in February when the Democratic National Committee holds its winter meetings.

Also running for the spot are former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, Democratic strategist Donnie Fowler, former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer, former Ohio state Democratic Party chair David Leland and Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democrat Network.

"It's not just about spending more money," Rosenberg said in an interview before the forum. "Money also needs to have strategy."

Roemer said if elected he would work harder to appeal to rural voters in the South and Midwest, two areas that have gone solidly to Bush in the last two elections.

"Some people think we need to steer left. Some people think I would steer the party right. It's not about that. It's about expanding the bus," Roemer said.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a fellow Democrat, told the candidates that the party needs to listen more to local officials. He said he is proof that Democrats know how to win on the statewide level in the South, and that can be translated to the presidential election with a more comprehensive strategy.

"The next time around, we want a 50-state platform. We want a 50-state party," Bredesen said to loud applause. "To my party, get out of Washington more."

For those who do not know...

The Rebel Yell

A distinctive feature of the Southern soldier was the rebel yell, a long, quavering sound that became legendary. One of the challenges of reenacting is to determine what this famous call actually sounded like.

After the war a number of veterans sought to describe the yell in print. One of the most detailed descriptions came from J. Harvie Drew, a soldier in the 9th Virginia Cavalry. He gave this transcription of the rebel yell:

"Woh--who--ey! Who--ey! Who--ey! Woh--who--ey! Who--ey! (The best illustration of this "true yell" which can be given the reader is by spelling it as above, with directions to sound the first syllable "woh" short and low, and the second "who" with a very high and prolonged note deflecting upon the third syllable "ey.")
Others rendered the yell as "yai, yai, yi, yai, yi" and "y-yo yo-wo-wo." From these examples, it would appear the yell was both multi-syllable and also composed of pattern that was repeated several times.

Many have traced the origins of the rebel yell to the rural life int he prewar south. Drew believed in this derivation, stating

Hollering, screaming, yelling for one person or another, to their dogs, or at some of the cattle on the plantation, with the accompanying reverberations from hilltops, over valleys and plains, were familiar sounds throughout the farming districts of the South in the days gone by.
Hunting, which was enjoyed and indulged in more or less by nearly every citizen of the South, was also conducive to this characteristic development.
The rebel yell stood in definite contrast to the more disciplined cheer of the Yankees. The latter was described by Drew in these terms:

The Federal or "Yankee" yell, compared with that of the Confederate, lacked in vocal breadth, pitch, and resonance. This was unquestionably attributable to the fact that the soldiery of the North was drawn and recruited chiefly from large cities and towns, from factory districts and from the more densely settled portions of the country.
* * *. . . their peculiar, characteristic yell [was] -- "Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray!" (This yell was called by the Federals a "cheer," and was intended for the word "hurrah," but that pronunciation I never heard in a charge. The sound was as though the first sylllable, if heard at all, was "hoo," uttered with an exceedingly short,low, and indistinct tone, and the second was "ray," yelled with a long and high tone slightly deflecting its termination. In many instances the yell seemed to be the simple interjection "heigh," rendered with the same tone which was given to "ray.")
Whatever the sound or the origins of the rebel yell, its use and effect on the battlefield was undeniable. Col. O. M. Roberts commanded the 11th Texas Infantry in several battles in Louisiana, and left this account of Texans and the rebel yell:

The Texas soldiers in line of battle, with their attention intensely alive to what they were doing and how they should act, were cool enough and intelligent enough to pass the word along the whole line of battle like an electric current; and when the command was given, "Forward, charge!" it, too, would be rapidly passed, and then simultaneously the Texas "rebel yell" burst out from the whole line, as all together they dashed at double quick toward the enemy. The effect of that yell was marvelous....Such yells exploded on the air in one combined sound have been heard distinctly three miles off across a prairie, above the din of musketry and artillery.

Stop. Many, indeed in many states, most, Southerners are in fact Democrats (of the DINO variety, of the KKK variety, and of the African-American variety).

The DINO Democrats are a veritable dinosaur, not realizing that they're still registered as Democrats and voting pretty much straight-ticket Republican in national elections (although they sometimes vote for conservative Zell Miller style Dixiecrats in state elections). Most Southern Democrats enthusiastically supported the reelection of President George W. Bush. The national Democratic Party has no interest in courting these voters; similarly, these voters have no interest in courting the national Democratic Party.

The KKK Democrats are a rapidly dying breed in the Old Deep South. Jim Crow politicians placated these once-numerous poor whites in the bygone days of the Solid South largely by playing the divisive race canard to give their base a false sense of superiority and empowerment. With the enfranchisement of African-Americans (thanks largely to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), the political power of the KKK Democrats faded into a mere vestige, as, predictably, did the Democratic Party of the old Solid South. The KKK wing of the Democratic Party is, however, somewhat more popular these days in states closer to the Democrats' Northeastern geographic base. In West Virginia, where they have elected one of their own to the United States Senate.

And the African-American Democrats--well, they're about 2% of the Vermont electorate at most. Likewise, the liberal Democrat socialists comprise a measly 2% or less of the Southern electorate despite their dominance of the Vermont electorate. And Southern blacks continue to slip away from the Democratic plantation.

So what's the Democrats' Southern strategy? Maybe trying to recruit a moderately conservative red-state governor popular at home to represent the party as its presidential candidate. But, could such a person manage to placate the treasonous hard-socialist base without eroding his popularity at home and making a serious contest of a few Southern states? I doubt it.

The Democrats' strategy should include some procreation and an abhorrence of legalized abortion, ...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.