Posted on 12/20/2014 7:37:08 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With the recent defeat of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu — which leaves three Democratic Southern U.S. Senators — the common wisdom is that Democrats should bid farewell to the South.
Even with favorable changing national demographics that benefit Democrats, an abandonment of the South and, on a larger scale, a viable moderate wing would be a mistake.
Recently, writer Michael Tomasky argued that the South, a “reactionary, prejudice-infested” region, should be left to Republicans to create a “free market Jesus paradise.” Few sentiments better show what is wrong with Democrats today and why ironic Republican arguments that it is the Democrats who are the “elitists” gain traction.
Democrats still need both the South and a viable national moderate wing. The South is where successful Democratic presidential candidates — who are moderate enough to win nationally — call home. For the 11 presidential elections before 2008, all successful Democratic candidates were Southerners, and three of the last four nominated vice presidential Democratic candidates were Southerners. Centrist Southern Democrats champion today the values of the New Deal and the “Beloved Community” while keeping faith with local values.
A Democratic Southern abandonment would only further leave our two major political parties without viable moderate wings. Southern states that once produced productive moderate Democrats — who did not ridicule their constituents as “reactionary, prejudiced-infested” rednecks and fought for racial and social justice — cannot be abandoned to produce another Ted Cruz.
Contrary to popular wisdom, Democrats can still win in the South. The key to this is to connect with voters, not to embrace elitist notions that reject voters through crude cultural and religious stereotypes.
Democrats often blame this failure in the South on racism and redistricting. The great dividends for Republicans from their post-civil rights era Southern strategy realignment — now condemned conveniently by some Republicans after its benefits have been exhausted — are undeniable. Equally undeniable is the detrimental impact of racial redistricting, where Republican legislators pack minorities into Democratic majority districts and whitewash their own districts.
However, the Democratic tone has changed, too, to the detriment of moderate Southern Democrats. Though Democrats remarkably claim that Ronald Reagan could not survive a Republican primary today, the reverse question must be posed: Would a moderate Democrat survive a national primary today? Could a Lloyd Bentsen — the 1988 Democratic vice presidential nominee — survive today? Could a Democrat who, like Bill Clinton in 1992, challenged Democratic orthodoxy on welfare, balanced budgets and crime survive a primary?
In Florida, the farm system that once produced such Democrats as Reubin Askew, Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles is defunct thanks not only to Republican redistricting but also Democratic malfeasance. Furthermore, a national trend of Democrats stressing liberal positions on social issues has harmed all moderate candidates, especially in the South. The national Democratic Party commits itself to liberal positions on gay marriage, abortion rights and gun control, with limited room for local accommodation.
The answer to the 2014 election loss is not for Democrats to become more regionally and ideologically isolated, or to attack Southern voters. Although Democrats will always be a majority progressive party, Democrats must have a viable moderate wing in a big tent, and nowhere is that moderate wing more needed than in the South.
The region where a weakened Franklin Roosevelt came to find rehabilitation and inspiration in Warm Springs, Georgia, can still today provide rehabilitation and inspiration for Democrats nationally.
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Luis E. Viera is a Tampa attorney.
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