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A cultural disconnect in Dixie The southern states are looking for different sorts of Democrats
US News & World Report ^ | Feb 14, 2005 issue | Dan Gilgoff

Posted on 02/06/2005 5:03:11 AM PST by Mike Fieschko

DURHAM, N.C.--The hundred or so Democratic activists gathered in an auditorium at North Carolina Central University on a January weeknight to meet with state party bigwigs have each been given two paper flags--one green, one red. When someone says something they agree with, attendees are supposed to wave green flags; if they disagree, they wave the red. Plenty of the proposals elicit green flags, like withdrawing from Iraq. Then a member of the state party's executive committee suggests reaching out to NASCAR dads. "We have churches and values," she says, "and we have to make that clear." A wave of red flags ripples across the room. Grumbles activist Don Esterling, 62: "We don't need to be Republican light."

Or maybe they do. In the American South, the ranks of Democratic senators have shrunk from 20 to four since 1980, and the party's presidential ticket has lost every state for the second time in a row. "This is the worst it's been for Democrats here . . . since Reconstruction," says Emory University Prof. Merle Black. And yet a handful of "red" state governors, including North Carolina's Mike Easley, Tennessee's Phil Bredesen, and Virginia's Mark Warner, have proved Democrats can win in the South, partly by irking party activists with NRA endorsements and support for capital punishment. "I'm a former prosecutor, a hunter, love to drive race cars, have very strong religious beliefs," says Easley. "That's everything you'd think of as conservative." But while it's possible for Easley to distance himself from the national party, it's a tougher gambit for presidential hopefuls.

Democrats lost their iron grip on Dixie after spearheading the civil rights bills of the 1960s. The New South's economic boom attracted fiscally conservative northerners, while the political realignment of the region's evangelical Christians hastened the GOP ascendancy. The last few years have seen, for the first time, more southern voters identifying as Republicans than as Democrats or independents. That helps explain why, last fall, five Senate seats vacated by retiring Democrats fell into GOP hands.

Values. But the South's successful Democrats have compensated for liberal stances on social issues like abortion by convincing voters of their personal values. Easley, for example, is pro-choice but talks openly about his faith. "If people see the candidate as a strong believer," says Easley adviser Mac McCorkle, "issues take care of themselves." Former four-term North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, a Democrat, says he framed educational initiatives as what God wants : "Too many of our candidates are reluctant to mention God. [Voters] think if you don't talk about it, you must not have those feelings."

Kerry discussed his faith on the campaign trail reluctantly and was perceived in the South as culturally foreign, "a windsurfer and snowboarder," says University of North Carolina Prof. Ferrel Guillory. While Tennessee's Bredesen is, like Kerry, a northeasterner--raised in New York State--he stressed his rural upbringing and trap-shooting prowess on the stump. "They will vote for a Democrat here, but they have to feel good about the person," says Tennessee Democratic Chairman Randy Button.

Even if Democratic Senate and presidential hopefuls learn to connect personally with southern voters, it's unclear if the winning strategies of southern Democratic state officeholders can hold up in national races. Virginia's Warner, for instance, has reined in a spiraling budget deficit and instituted popular education reforms but has been able to duck divisive national issues like the Iraq war. Southern voters want button-down governors who "keep schools open and roads paved," says Guillory, "but see federal officeholders much more ideologically." Which means, in North Carolina, many voters split ballots between Easley and Bush. "[Easley has] done right by education and attracted employers," says Ann Barnhill, 50, a Greenville lawyer who voted for Easley but backed Bush to show wartime military support and because she detects a softening national morality.

Can Democrats produce a nominee in '08 who wins over southerners without bringing on "Republican light" charges from party activists? Easley says recent history isn't reassuring. "Too often, we're cheering the candidate at the convention," he says, "while looking around at one another saying, 'Hmmm . . . he's not gonna do well at home.'"



TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: southerndems
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1 posted on 02/06/2005 5:03:11 AM PST by Mike Fieschko
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To: Mike Fieschko
Mike Easley would be a good Democratic presidential candidate. He's pro-choice but in other respects he's Southern and pro-gun, pro-hunting, and pro-capital punishment. A no-no to the coastal liberal elites who now control the national Democratic Party.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

2 posted on 02/06/2005 5:09:25 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mike Fieschko
Interesting article, thanks for posting.

Democrats here in NC continue to not only follow in CA's footsteps with onerous new "taxes" in the name of Democrat Values which folks reject; BUT Democrats are ushering in a girlie-man mentality -- not just in laws, but in the schools. I hear John Edwards is now working for or with the Poverty Law Center at UNC. Now, perhaps he hasn't figured out -- in the West "Poverty Law" groups are pure socialists. I don't think it's going to take long for Southerners to catch on to this -- unless the media buries what the Poverty Law groups is up to.

3 posted on 02/06/2005 5:10:47 AM PST by Alia
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To: Alia
The problem is John Edwards and the extreme libs are not as smooth as Easley. No way they can win NC voters over. Edwards didn't even bother running for re-election in the Tarheel State and he didn't help carry it for French Boy.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

4 posted on 02/06/2005 5:12:56 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mike Fieschko

The baby-killing, gun-grabbing, America-hating Democrats have a strong-hold on their party at the national level.


5 posted on 02/06/2005 5:14:40 AM PST by Always Right
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To: goldstategop

Sounds like he is Republican light except for the prochoice stance.

In my humble opinion, unless things change dramatically on the political front we wont have to worry about a dem being elected in 2008. They have absolutely nothing to offer that the majority want in their President.


6 posted on 02/06/2005 5:17:12 AM PST by stopem
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To: Mike Fieschko
"We have churches and values," she says, "and we have to make that clear." A wave of red flags ripples across the room. Grumbles activist Don Esterling, 62: "We don't need to be Republican light."

It's getting harder and harder for the RATs to lie about who and what they are.

"Activist" Don Esterling hates the churches, and the people who go to them, and their values.

He and his allies have been hiding it for years, it has been pissing them off to have to lie about it, they've HAD ENOUGH and they're NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

YEEEAGH!


7 posted on 02/06/2005 5:17:32 AM PST by Jim Noble
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To: goldstategop

Easly is a bait-and-switch candidate on abortion. He's against it, but it's okay if you kill babies. When will Christians wake up and throw candidates like him out of office?


8 posted on 02/06/2005 5:18:21 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: Mike Fieschko
Former four-term North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, a Democrat, says he framed educational initiatives as what God wants : "Too many of our candidates are reluctant to mention God. [Voters] think if you don't talk about it, you must not have those feelings."

And in that sentence, the gulf is revealed.

It's not a feeling.

9 posted on 02/06/2005 5:18:47 AM PST by Jim Noble
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To: stopem
In other words, a DINO. The last thing the Democrats will do my friend, is nominate one even if it meant forfeiting the White House another 8 years. They'd rather be Red and lose than move to the center and win an election.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

10 posted on 02/06/2005 5:20:07 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mike Fieschko

In other words, southerners prefer Dems who don't feel the US, with a Republican at the helm, is the center of all evil in the universe.


11 posted on 02/06/2005 5:20:26 AM PST by Edit35
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To: goldstategop

LOL..Easley would record the first ever NEGATIVE vote in the Iowa caucuses and NH primaries..Until the Dem party solves that little problem..


12 posted on 02/06/2005 5:20:34 AM PST by ken5050
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To: Mike Fieschko
LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!!

"Democrats lost their iron grip on Dixie after spearheading the civil rights bills of the 1960s."

I don't think so! A simple fact check would have pointed out the prominent role of REPUBLICANS supporting Civil Rights. The Democrats started really losing the South when the candidates and their messengers continued to insult Southerners and the VALUES they hold.

And continuing to insinuate that the South still wishes for the old racist South is a insulting as it is ignorant.

The Democrats LOST the South because they alienated Southerners.
13 posted on 02/06/2005 5:21:44 AM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitor)
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To: kittymyrib
He must have done something right for conservative and moderate North Carolinians to split their votes between him and Bush.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

14 posted on 02/06/2005 5:21:49 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Jim Noble
Its the values, stupid. My advice to Hunt is, fudgitboutit. Those Yankees are slow learners.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

15 posted on 02/06/2005 5:23:34 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Blueflag
LOL! The Left thinks Southerners are folks like the ones in Hazzard County. Corrupt, loveable, funny, and slow-witted - like Jefferson Davis Hogg.

Denny Crane: There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

16 posted on 02/06/2005 5:25:26 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mike Fieschko

Howard Dean's RATS are going for that guy with the confederate flag on the back of his pickup truck. They're not going to find him at NCCU.


17 posted on 02/06/2005 5:29:38 AM PST by advance_copy
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To: goldstategop

Easley does have the talent of Southern unflappability. I got to hear it. But Easley is very quietly easing the way for liberal ways to enter the state. He provides cover, while the liberals wrangle and meet him halfway. It's foil.


18 posted on 02/06/2005 5:30:29 AM PST by Alia
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To: stopem

Easily is doing the policy of "incrementalism". Di-Fi did the same thing in CA.


19 posted on 02/06/2005 5:31:11 AM PST by Alia
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To: Blueflag

LOL! That was the first "blue state flag" item I caught in the article: That lie about Dems leading the "civil rights movement" in the South. The teachers here, are quite interesting. Just as Berkeley moved their "free speech" grads to my highschool in the late 60s and early 70s, those same twits are showing up to teach in NC schools. And oh my! The whining about the scores... more parents should be concerned about what is going on inside the classroom, vis a vis so-called instruction. It's how the libs took over CA schools. And bit by bit, the youths became wild and unruly. Schools blamed "families". And began designing lots and lots of programs to "teach" families. The spread of socialism and grotty liberalism.


20 posted on 02/06/2005 5:35:45 AM PST by Alia
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