Democrats’ Grip on the South Continues to Slip

[onehandle]

Source: New York Times

JONESBORO, Ark. — The Southern white Democrat, long on the endangered list, is at risk of being pushed one step closer to extinction. From Virginia to Florida and South Carolina to Texas, nearly two dozen Democratic seats are susceptible to a potential Republican surge in Congressional races on Election Day, leaving the party facing a situation where its only safe presence in the South is in urban and predominantly black districts.

The swing has been under way since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson predicted that his fellow Democrats would face a backlash of white voters that would cost the party the South. It continued with Ronald Reagan’s election and reached a tipping point in the Republican sweep of 1994, with more than one-third of the victories coming from previously Democratic seats in the South.

This year, retirements of Democrats have left the party scrambling to retain four open seats in Arkansas and Tennessee that have been in their control for most of the last century. Those districts, along with others held by incumbents in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina, are central to the Republican strategy to win the House.

For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans also are well-positioned to control more state legislative chambers and seats than Democrats in the South, which would have far-reaching effects for redistricting.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/politics/19south.html

[msongs]

1. white racist christian majority has moved from old style dems to new style repubs nt

[apnu]

17. Yeah, that happened 160 years ago.

The whole pole shift in US politics post Civil War. Were we living in the 1860's this would be the Republican Underground. But after the Civil War all the shit bags in the North couldn't run under the Democratic banner as that name was poison so they jumped to the Republican party. And the opposite happened in the South. No Southern pol could run under the Republican name and not be tarred and feathered.

Of course the shift happened again with the "Southern Strategy" that I'm sure everybody here is familiar with.

My point is, conservative shit bags have always existed in the US and will continue to exist in the US and their party affiliation is academic.

[No Elephants]

31. The shift began maybe with Eleanor Roosevelt

and accelerated after the Voting and Civil Rights Acts.

160 years ago, it was Republicans who were on the correct side of history--and populism.

[CanonRay]

2. Grip? What grip?

We haven't had a Grip on the south since George Wallace ran for President.

[Kookaburra]

4. Truth

[MightyAfrodite]

3. Uhm ...

Nothing new here. :shrug:

[bemildred]

5. More fear-mongering from the NYT. nt

[Botany]

6. Tell everybody in the south (rest of the usa too)

That Red China is paying the Chamber of Commerce millions of dollars to run
ads in support of republicans so that our jobs can be kept being shipped
overseas.


The repugs know this is toxic to them because just listen to them scream
about how this isn't true.

[dotymed]

7. In TN

there are mimeographed anti-Obama posters publicly displayed in many businesses. Obama is a dirty word for the locals.
I guess they are afraid of a disruption of the "good ol' boy network."
I am shunned whenever I speak up about my ideals like universal health care, and much more.
While I can't say that President Obama has done much to further these ideals, he is the "lesser of two evils" as far as I can tell.

[old mark]

8. I'd consider the source of this - the Times has transformed from a moderately liberal

paper to a right wing outlet for GOP propaganda. I mistrust ANY article or story right now that had Democrats losing...wait a few weeks and we shall see, but I believe they are just whores for the 'publican party.
"Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear..." especially before an election.


mark

[nyc 4 Biden]

12. +1

[LibDemAlways]

9. The R's have done a masterful job of convincing scared

white people to vote against their own self interests. This is true not only in the South but among the working class Dems everywhere who began defecting in the late 1960s, There are two types of Rs - the elites who benefit from all the tax breaks and the working class who buy into the R talking points and have convinced themselves that the Dems are evil socialists. I'm sure behind closed doors the Limpballs and Hannitys have another name for them - suckers.

[oswaldactedalone]

10. I'm white, in the South, and working hard for Dems.

Granted there are only 35% of white people in the South voting Dem. I find it hard to believe that number has shrunk much in two years. Although, the whole idea behind the right wing takeover of the media is to scare white people into voting against the "brown" people. Might work.

[Name removed]

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[lobodons]

13. Low information hicks

South is filled with em. I live in the South and it is just amazing at how frickin stupid these people are. Can't fix stupid.

[Lint Head]

15. So I'm taking from this that the South is becoming

more racist. Things never change.

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. Not becoming more racist -

it's just that the current politics is taking the onus off racism, so the racists are speaking out like they haven't since the 60s and 70s, since desegregation and busing.

The younger generation is, if anything, much less racist. The racists are bucking the trend of history, IMO.

[dmosh42]

14. Left over from plantation days. If the owner does good, then the po' ones will too!

Also most of the ministers tell them to vote for Repukes.

[Romulox]

16. Perhaps a *small* shift to the Right will win them over?m It's worth a shot.

:rofl:

[yurbud]

19. just burn a LITTLE cross

[husky92]

18. No Surprise With That News

That doesn't shock me one bit. I live in the south and it amazes me how out of touch with reality so many people here are. I'm not trying to pass myself off as some elitist, but I see the bumper stickers and read letters to the editor in my local paper and just shake my head with what some of these nitwits say and write. Let's face it, most of the south is a bunch of flag-waving, Fox-watching, god-fearing bunch of dittoheads. I'm sure the majority hates gay marriage, doesn't believe in "don't ask, don't tell", thinks every media outlet outside of Fox is liberal and would rather they teach creationism in schools than anything closely resembling evolution. When such a large percentage of people think Jim DeMint is such a great Senator, we're in trouble. But when those Republicans start spewing their toxic talk about the so-called liberals, their mindless followers hang on every word and treat it as gospel no matter how outlandish it is. I can see the day when the south is totally Republican. And those Republicans aren't Mr. Lincoln's party!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. Think there's any chance of posthumously switching

Lincoln to the Dems and Jeff Davis to the Republicans?

[yurbud]

20. what about all the black people that live in the South? Isn't there anywhere blacks+white lefties=

more than redneck republicans?

[StandingInLeftField]

22. Certain downtown districts of major metropoli.

Certain extremely poor rural counties (minus the white lefties.)

[yurbud]

23. farmers in California aren't known for being lefties either

[StandingInLeftField]

24. Here in South Cackelacky the only sure thing for Dems is the very poor rural districts.

These districts are almost entirely made up of poor black landowners and comprise some of the most disadvantaged counties in the country. Rep. Jim Clyburn's 6th District is gerrymandered around Charleston County and the Gold Coast (Myrtle Beach) and includes Williamsburg Country, the poorest of the poor.

[DAMANgoldberg]

28. Watch SC-5

If John Spratt goes down, even though the largest county in his district is quite red (York), the Dems are in big trouble because he is essentially the last link to the Fritz Hollings type of democrat in SC.

NC-8 (which includes part of the inner metro) only recently became Democrat. In a normal year, his R opponent, longtime Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson (I know personally) would run away and hide, but there is a chance.

NC-9 & NC-12 (most of Charlotte, and urban Charlotte ribboned) will not change parties. Sue Myrick and Mel Watt are going nowhere.

NC-11 (Western NC), hold the nose for Heath Shuler, Asheville is not large enough to elect a true progressive for the whole district, so he is as progressive as it will get there.

[onehandle]

29. Here in Metro Atlanta. Yes.

I live in the bluest area of the South. That gets us John Lewis as a representative.

But I expect our soon to be second Republican Governor since reconstruction to redistrict even him out of power.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. They embraced their racism and became Republicans.

[totodeinhere]

25. Actually, I'm glad to get the racists out of the Democratic Party.

The GOP is where they belong since the GOP is inherently racist anyway. The Jim Crow era and racist Southern Democrats represent a black chapter in the history of the Democratic Party, and I'm glad that the party has moved past that.

[Name removed]

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