Footstep's observations merit consideration and respect. If for no other reason, the conviction that resonates in his/her words and the degree of passion with which they are expressed. Go for the big prize or stay the hell up on the porch.

Once again I find myself more than slightly annoyed over the attitude that all caucasian Southern residents are a bunch of bigoted, Bible thumping crackers. There are more Democrats in Mississippi than you think; born and raised, not transplanted. A great many of us (including females) followed the last Senate election closely, hoping to see Rick Santorum get beaten badly and cry like a little girl. Both of our Senate members may be Republican, but we do have 2 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are Democrats; one of which is an African-American by the name of Bennie Thompson, a ranking member on the Homeland Security Commission. There's more diversity here than you give us credit for. I am tired of pundits pandering to the holier-than-thou masses who find it comforting to say things like "our state may not be perfect, but at least we're not Mississippi." Give it a rest.

No, it's not just the name of a former good-looking former Borg, it's also the numbers to back up my letter below. Go to http://www.lonestarproject.net/ and read about how the Democrat-aligned Lone Star Project targeted nine close races in Texas and won seven, including knocking off some incumbents.

Yes, the South is conservative, but there is still ore to be mined here for Democrats. In the Texas Legislature, Dems picked up a seat in 2004, and picked up six more from 2004 to 2006, and could have had more if the Democratic power-brokers had more wisely spent their money on some close local statehouse races instead of foolishly blowing a big wad on Republican-turned-independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn in the governor's race (see Paul Burka's blog on TexasMonthly.com for a smart editorial on this). The key issue is education: The Republican leadership has worked hard to destroy public education with vouchers, and Texans are rejecting it.

And if the national party will spend some dough this month, they could add one more U.S. House seat to their majority – because the race for Dist. 23 was a special election instead of general, it must be settled in a runoff this month. During the wide-open first round on election day, Republican Henry Bonilla took 48.6%, while SIX Democrats split up 48.7%. Money, a strong turnout, and a party united behind Ciro Rodriguez could put southwest Texas in Dem hands.

Those "experts" who now say Democrats should just forget about the South remind me of previous "experts" who said a few years ago Democrats should just forget about the Rocky Mountain West.

Obviously, no part of the country should be ignored or surrendered to one particular political party.

That said, I think Carville is living in the past. I appreciate what he did in the early 1990s, but the world and the nation have moved on since then. My view is that we need Democrats who are unabashedly Democratic and not embarrassed about being liberal. The era of the Republican-Lite, don't-scare-the-white-people, don't-scare-the-rubes strategy is over, I think.

One particular mistake made by Carville and others in his camp is that they assume that people who live in rural or semi-rural areas are conservative rubes who need to be somehow tricked into voting Democratic. In truth, I think you'll find that a lot of rural people are fed up with Bush, the Iraq war (many, many rural residents have been serving in Iraq) and Republicans in general. I think you'll also find that a lot of rural people don't give a crap about those GOP "moral" issues, and if they do, they're a lot more tolerant and libertarian in their thinking than the political "experts" assume.

Those darn conservatives just can't stop thinking about butt sex!

Salon has a cartoon on the subject:

http://salon.com/comics/boll/2006/11/16/boll/index1.html

I'm straight and I love it! Immoral? Says who? The flying spaghetti monster?

Dan, if you think anal sex is anything but "having sex with shit," you're sorely mistaken. It's gross, disgusting, dangerous, and immoral, and society has a right to say so and to condemn it.

"the common theme to my letter was a Supreme Court that has violated the most basic principle of the Constitution--namely, that the people are sovereign..."

The most basic principle of the Constitution is *not* that the majority has the right to persecute the minority. The people's sovereignty is limited by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The basic principle of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the limitation of government powers.

Some "conservatives" think that the government should decide what sexual act I may participate in, and with whom. Why are these "conservatives" are so enamored with the idea of a big, intrusive government monitoring such a personal act? The irony is that these same conservatives rail against big government-- when in fact, they just want big government to enact *their* agenda.

Lawrence v. Texas was the case of a gay couple being arrested for having sex in the privacy of their bedroom. You characterized that as the right of a "man to have sex with shit." If you consider that a respectful characterization, you are not speaking from a "moral" perspective, nor a true Biblical perspective, nor even with the basic manners your mother should have taught you. I characterize yours a hateful perpective--but that's just me.

Anyway, the point of my original post is that the Democrats shouldn't cater to haters like you-- but neither should they give up on the many reasonable people in the South.

Those of us who live in the South and gamely vote for Democrats every chance we get do not deserve to be abandoned.

Did I ever mention the Bible, even once? If you were clever enough, you'd notice the common theme to my letter was a Supreme Court that has violated the most basic principle of the Constitution--namely, that the people are sovereign, and the Court has no authority to make law out of thin air, as it did with both Lawrence and Roe.

Don't resort to the facile arguments of so many on the Left, who dismiss anything they disagree with as being based merely on "hate."

And Liberals claim to be the smart ones.