Southern Strategies
My piece on last weeks' "New Strategies for Southern Progress" conference in Chapel Hill, NC -- and progressive Southern Strategy in general -- is now online at The Nation. Here's how it starts:
Do progressives and Democrats have a future in the South? Ever since the great unpleasantness of last November, a chorus of left-leaning pundits have taken the region's defeats -- no electoral votes for John Kerry, zero-for-five in open races for US Senate -- as a sure sign that the South is a lost cause. Fold up the tent, the doubters say. Focus our energy elsewhere. Or as one indelicate yet frequently forwarded e-mail after the elections put it, 'F*ck the South.'
Not so fast, say the South's defenders -- especially Southern progressives. Given that almost a third of the country lives in the South and it's growing fast, and that the South still sets the tone for national politics (look at the Tennesseans and Texans who lead the White House and Capitol Hill), ignoring the South is hardly an option.
Besides, there's a rich progressive legacy in the South, and Democrats are far from dead: There are four Southern Democratic governors, hundreds of Democratic state legislators, and in six of thirteen Southern states, more registered voters identify as Democrats than Republicans.
Enter 'New Strategies for Southern Progress,' a gathering of some 200 Democratic Party leaders, academics, journalists and assorted progressives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Convened by Washington, DC's Center for American Progress; the Center for a Better South; and the UNC Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life, the conference aimed to 'identify pragmatic and innovative solutions to the region's toughest problems' and, more boldly, 'chart a new progressive vision for the region.'"
From grassroots activists to party insiders, everyone came with open eyes about the challenges -- and potential -- Southern progressives face ... But attendees left visibly conflicted on some fundamental questions: What kind of politics can -- and should -- win in the region? And what are our bedrock values and long-term vision for the future?
10 Comments:
Chris, thank you for this important communication. I was uplifted to know that several large institutions are springing up in the South to, hopefully, engage in a meaningful discussion of Democratic policy and practice that can make strides in the region (read Change). I was encouraged to read that many southern state politicians are Democrats, so there's a solid base we need to listen to. Kerry didn't do well there because he didn't do well anywhere. He simply didn't have a message for the country, let alone the South, and his counteroffensive to Karl Rove was embarrassing. I think one huge issue for us is to be able to be human enough to speak to those whose sensibilities lie in the church. W.J. Clinton, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, and John Edwards are very, very good at this. Frankly, I think all political discussion should be more "human" oriented. Last, the job of educating Americans on the real thrust of the Republican message is as important as having our own message. Sadly, the real thrust has nothing to do with helping average Americans -- be they Northern, Southern, Eastern or Western -- achieve the American dream. It's exactly the opposite. The "flush the government down the bathtub drain" and along with it, all social safety nets that exemplify American goodness, is what the Republicans stand for. But they don't say that. In fact, they deny it all the way to the voting booth. They actually convince people that what they stand for and propose as positive change is actually the exactly opposite of their rhetoric or a taking away of something previously understood as inalienable. No Child Left Behind is only one example. I could list about 20. NCLB was sold as "raising achievement." But it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with cutting the federal education budget and making school systems sink or swim on their own. You'll never hear that on Fox or CNN, but it's the truth. Mind you, I DO NOT THINK that money is the answer to public education's problems. But taking money away from public education isn't going to raise achievement, either, which is the stated goal of NCLB.
I think it is great that there is all this talk about "The South." I am not from the South, and all I know about it is what I read, or what people tell me who have lived in The South. We may speculate all we want, but as outsiders, we really cannot know what is in the minds of the folks who live in The South. We need to talk directly to the people who live in The South. That is the only way to know what they are thinking. I am not talking about elected officials, I am talking about the people on the street...the voters. Otherwise, we are just guessing, that has not seemed to work too well for a long time now.
kbeck02 said:
We may speculate all we want, but as outsiders, we really cannot know what is in the minds of the folks who live in The South. We need to talk directly to the people who live in The South.Who do you mean by "we" here? This blog is based in the South, and the people mentioned in this specific post (John Edwards, etc.) are all Southern. From what I can tell, other posts on this blog have highlighted the work of Southern activists & grassroots movements. So what is this "southern perspective" that "we" are supposedly not getting here?
I'm not originally from the South, but have lived here in North Carolina for about 10 years. As a transplant, I have to say that I don't buy this idea that the "mind of southerne folks" is some impenetrable mystery that non- Southerners just can't begin to understand. That notion of "Southern mystique" is kind of self-defeating, I think.
I recently deleted a long off-topic comment here.
Folks interested in the content can read it at the commenter's blog:
Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" 2005 Unity Covenant
I have to say that I don't buy this idea that the "mind of southerne folks" is some impenetrable mystery that non- Southerners just can't begin to understand. That notion of "Southern mystique" is kind of self-defeating, I think.It's not self-defeating. It is, in fact, essential to understand how to reach Southerners who should be Democrats but aren't. From the posts on this board, one could conclude that non-Southerners don't get it no matter how long they live here.
anonymous said: "I think one huge issue for us is to be able to be human enough to speak to those whose sensibilities lie in the church. W.J. Clinton, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, and John Edwards are very, very good at this."
Even more than to be human enough, is to be Christian enough to preach populist Democratic values as Christian moral values. We need to take that populist message beyond the pulpits of the African-American churches, and into the mainstream WASP churches, including the Southern Baptist and other more "fundamentalist" churches. We need to preach the message that Christian moral values are not limited to abortion and gay marriage; that these values include the Democratic populist values of economic and social justice.
John Edwards can preach that message. Unfortunately, I don't feel that the Kerry campaign did a good job of using John Edwards in that way.
Chris, you said there's a rich progressive legacy in the South, and Democrats are far from dead: There are four Southern Democratic governors, hundreds of Democratic state legislators, and in six of 13 Southern states, more registered voters identify as Democrats than Republicans.Which, of course is indisputable, but what about the biggest electoral victory that progressives scored in the South (or practically anywhere else for that matter)in 2004?
I'm speaking, of course, of the overwhelming passage of Amendment 5 in Florida (sponsored primarily by Florida ACORN), which created Florida's first minimum wage (at $1 over the Federal level) and then indexed it to inflation. This passed with an incredible 71% of the vote, carried every single county in the state, and got over a million more votes than George Bush.
This was despite an anti campaign that spent $4 million over the last 8 weeks or so.
One wonders how Kerry's campaign might have done had it hitched its wagon to this measure visibly and early. Kerry, for whatever reason refused to do so despite repeated entreaties.
I am disappointed that you did not use your opportunity with this article to point to this dramatic victory as a marker for a potential strategy in the South focusing on economic justice.
We cannot replicate victories if we do not know they exist.
A thorough description of the Florida ACORN victory in raising the minimum wage can be found at this web address:
http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/139/organize.html
Nathan,
You're right about the Florida minimum wage victory, which we've commented on extensively in our Facing South email newsletter, and which we held up as "exhibit A" in terms of the South's progressive potential in the blog's opening post:
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/02/blogging-for-progressive-south.asp
Chris,
I'm glad ya'll have been on top of the minium wage win in Florida on the blog. I didn't see it in the newsletter (just an expired link to an Orlando Sentinal article), but that probably just means I missed it.
I still would have liked to have seen it in a article expressly about startegies for southern progressives, but hey! there'll be more articles.
Interestingly enough John Edwards recently committed to ACORN that he would help support their minimum wage and other economic justice campaigns across the country as part of his new dealy-bopper at UNC.
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