Letters to the Editor
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Hubba Bubba?
Curious piece, Mr. Schaller, although people will fixate on the "Bubba" and not on the larger points you were hoping to make. Not all white Southern males are "Bubba," and surely resent being seen that way.
Are these working class or middle class white Southern males you're talking about? Maybe the Democrats inevitably lost them because of the civil rights movement of the 60s, when the "Solid South" gradually left the Democratic party.
I'd probably take issue with any notion that the Republicans are natural bedfellas with that constituency (so to speak), although they've certainly been better at making themselves appear to be -- the chickenhawk effect, except dealing with cultural matters, instead of war -- maybe rhinestone cowboys would cover it, the dressing up of the Republican candidates to snooker that slice of the electorate.
But are those rhinestone cowboys any more representative of the "Bubba" (?) than the Democratic candidates? Just as the GOP talks a good war game (the vast majority without serving during wartime -- indeed, evading service more often than not), so the Republican rhinestone cowboys talk a good culture war game, without actually delivering much -- either because they're cynical opportunists, or else they're nutty ideologues who alienate the majority.
Missing in the following...
"They tend to be disproportionately southern, disproportionately white and disproportionately male, which pretty well defines the core of the Republican Party." In other words, it's a waste of time and resources for the Democrats to pursue them -- a classic sucker's bet.
...is a discussion of their class. Are they disproportionately working class, or part of the ever-vanishing middle class, being suckered to act against their very real class interests, taking refuge in their last two unassailable bastions: race and sex -- because they're losing on all the other fronts?
Suckers, eh? That's one word for the DLC, for sure. There are saltier words one could use. I think a good approach for Democrats is to do the opposite of what the DLC recommends, because the DLC epitomizes the phony huckster politicking where appearance matters over substance.
But, I bet a strong working- and middle-class economic program would win back some of those white males to the Democratic Party, without having to dip into the culture wars -- the cornerstone of the union vote seems to point to that vital economic connection. All the rhinestone cowboys offer is so much wind and snake oil.
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Other Side Of The Coin
Of course, if there's a dearth of white guys in the Democratic Party, whose mantra includes GGG=Guns, God and Gays, then the reverse must be true: the Repooplican Party is SOLELY or MOSTLY about and for white men. Just look at the Repooplican leadership: mostly white, overtly religious males.
Thanks, but, as a Southern, moderate, middle-aged white guy, I'll take the incredibly rich diversity of the Democrats EVERY time.
Oh, and, I'm well-armed with multiple weapons, am a life-long member of the Episcopal Church and frankly don't care what my adult friends do in bed with each other.
I'd make a good Repooplican, except for the fact that I have a brain...
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Other Side Of The Coin (Fixing Typo)
The coffee hadn't kicked in when I wrote: "Of course, if there's a dearth of white guys in the Democratic Party, whose mantra includes GGG=Guns, God and Gays, then the reverse must be true: the Repooplican Party is SOLELY or MOSTLY about and for white men."
I meant to say: "Of course, if there's a dearth of white guys in the Democratic Party, then the reverse must be true in the Repooplican Party. With its mantra of GGG=Guns, God and gays, it is SOLELY or MOSTLY about and for white men with little regard for diversity."
Ahhh, that's better...
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Panderer's Party
The reality is the Democratic party strategy is to pander to minorities. There is not a single positive message to white men that comes from any of the Democratic candidates. The message is invariably take from the haves (white men) and give to the have nots.....blacks, latino's, women, and any other perceived downtrodden group. I am not sure where I fit into all the stereotypical groups conjured up in this article, but I am a progressive, educated, secular white man in the south who is actually looking at moderate republicans for a candidate, because the Democratic party continues to tell me I dont matter. This could be the first election I vote for a Republican president since 1980.
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Is this a North/South thing?
I wonder how much of this merely reflects the declining influence of the Southern vote? If white, male union workers are still overwhelmingly Democratic voters, that speaks as much about geography to me as anything else, since it seems to me those voters are primarily in the North. Southern states are anti-union, "right to work" states.
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The political party where race matters
The last time I checked a map, Spain was also a part of Europe; if Latinos consider themselves to be part of some exclusive race apart from other European Americans based on their complexion, this is self-segregation, a Latino form of racism. Mexico is run so corruptly by Latino politicians that tens of millions of illegal Mexicans would rather try their luck in the USA under our politicians, than deal with their "own kind" running the shop back home. One has to wonder if the latinization of the Democratic party bodes well for the USA, given Mexican and other Latin American examples of governance and distributions of wealth. If you think cronyism and nepotism is bad under our system... Latin America in general sets poor examples of governance.
One wonders why Schaller has such callous enmity for non-latino European Americans; such examples of self-loathing set a poor example no matter what your ethnicity. If the world was a true democracy, the Chinese should be running the show, and they are a pretty homogenous group ethnically, will they feel Cortez's pain, if they don't feel Bubba's pain? An article entitled "so long black boy" or "so long spanish boy" would be just as racist as this article by Schaller, but Schaller's too cowardly to try those titles for any article. He knows only "white" race baiting is allowed today in the USA, under the auspices of the Warren Beatty wing of the Democratic Party that he represents. This is a racial polemic, and it's not believed it's necessary in a society that's more racially divided 140 years after our Civil War, than South Africa is 13 years after Apartheid.