Letters to the Editor
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Southern Strategy
I find the reactions to this article quite interesting. Since the 1960s, the Republicans consciously pursued a Southern Strategy, using race baiting to draw off white voters who had traditionally voted Democratic but who were "discomforted" by the civil rights movement. Reagan's welfare mothers, Bush I's Willie Horton ads, Jesse Helms "black" hand ad--all of these images helped to reinforce the image of the Democratic party as giving away white rights to African Americans. Bush II added a new bogeyman to the race by successfully playing off homophobia.
Guess what? The Southern Strategy worked. The Deep South is now pretty solidly Republican and it's pretty darned unlikely that a Democrat is going to carry those states in the 2008 election. Schaller should have stuck to the argument he made in his book instead pushing the Bubba stereotypes. The Democrats should not waste resources trying to win over the deep South at the presidential level, or pandering to NASCAR dads or bible-thumper moms, or whatever the latest designer demographic the media designates as the deciding factor in next year's contest.
Instead of pandering to groups that will never vote for them, Democrats should come up with a positive strategy of their own, appealing to interests and issues that unite, rather than those that divide. Health care, the war, the loss of our manufacturing base and the good-paying jobs that went with it, the decline of the middle class--these are issues that will resonate with a lot of people who are deeply concerned about the direction in which this country is headed. These are the voters the Democrats should appeal to, rather than the interests of their corporate sponsors.