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[stephensolomita]

105. Well-Deserved Response

Dustlawyer: I've been thinking about your post for the past 24 hours and you certainly deserve a response. First, let me admit that it's far easier for me to be a progressive in New York than for you to be a progressive in Texas. And I agree that too many posts, mine included, fail to consider the Dems who inhabit bright-red states like Texas. But you also provide an answer to my rejection - FOR NOW - of a fifty state approach when you describe yourself as "...always outnumbered, and sometimes at risk of physical harm...."

When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he famously said that the party would lose the south for a generation. His proclamation, as it turned out, was optimistic. Nixon began the Southern Strategy, Reagan followed through with his fried-chicken eatin' welfare queen, George Bush with Willie Horton, and Trump with birtherism. Once part of the New Deal coalition, southerners were the first to desert. Will they ever come back? At age 73, I don't hope to see it before I leave the fight for good.

Political resources are finite. You won't see Republican fat cats like the Koch Brothers pouring money into turning California red any time soon. Nor can Dems pour money into losing causes, not when we've been losing ground for more than fifty years. We must fight battles we can win.