Dixiecrat Dawn?
After the Republicans’ 8-point trouncing in an erstwhile congressional stronghold in Mississippi this week, former Representative Tom Davis likened the GOP to “dog food” due to be “taken off the self.” Well, whatever “re-branding” this expired can of victuals and gravy will undergo this fall, I’m beginning to sense that the Democrats, too, might be in for a fairly dramatic internal transformation in the near future.
Tom Childers, the victor last Tuesday, has proven that a Democrat can win in a mostly rural, mostly white redneck bastion. Moreover, in the Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia primaries, the loyalty to Hillary Clinton of former Regan Democrats (“hard working Americans, white Americans… without college degrees”) has a been a phenomenon as significant as Obamania. I agree with Paul that it’s ridiculous that graying blue-color Catholics see Hillary as sticking up for the common folk, but the fact is, it’s happening.
None of this means that these voters have taken a wholesale political 180; they’re clearly being driven in droves from the GOP due to Bush and the war, but I doubt they have changed much on most other issues. I sense instead that we might be witnessing a kind of rebirth of the Dixiecrat, a historically important aspect of the party’s identity that Nancy Pelosi probably hoped had been flushed down the memory hole long ago. The new Dixiecrats are “conservative Democrats,” that is, Democrats with “values” but with no real interest in small government ... well, I guess this makes them much like actual Republicans but without any Dubya milstone hanging around their necks. The war make it easy for Dixiecrat voters to leave the Republican party, but then the Democratic party and its candidates are also perfectly willing to allow a lot of the red-state stuff to pop up the (largely symbolic) discourse of the campaign.
On one of his commercials, Childers announced that he’s pro-life and pro-gun, and even that he’s never raised taxes.
I’m not sure Childers will be reliable on any of these issues, or that he’ll be more or less effective advocating them as a Democrat, but it’s clear that this kind of rhetoric wins.
As described in the Politico, Childers even scored big by opposing atheism, gambling, and the Chinese in one swoop:
In Mississippi, a [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] radio ad asked why Davis was accepting support from ‘the world’s No. 1 casino czar and one of atheist China’s top American business partners.’ The DCCC referred to a massive casino Adelson’s Sands Corp. owns in Macau, just outside Hong Kong, as ‘an investment in a country that steals our jobs, persecutes Christians, uses forced labor and forces women to have abortions. ’And what has Greg Davis said about all of this?’ the ad asked. ‘Absolutely nothing.’
Whatever one wants to say about all this, there are ways that more Dixiecrats in Congress would be of great benefit. Of the Democratic senators supporting the crucial SAVE Act, the most significant piece of legislation aimed at attrition of illegal immigrants through workplace enforcement, two of the three are southerners. In the House, 21 of the 49 Democratic supporters come from the land of the old confederacy.
The Conservative Democrats will need issues with which they can prove their “conservative” bona fides; for such a purpose, immigration restriction serves well.
In ’06, many of us hoped Jim Webb might be the start of something new; now he’s seeming more like the revival of something rather old. Whatever the case, I much prefer the Dixiecrats’ “big government conservatism” to the kind Fred Barnes and the contemporary GOP has on offer.
Comments
Political turmoil and gridlock are freedoms best friend. Sadly the Democrats are going to have a huge landslide. Any so called Dixiecrats will be swept along, just like they were in the thirties. The large numer of Dixiecrats couldn’t control Roosevelt in the thirties. The much smaller number today will have much less effect. Webb and Casey are 2 prime examples of this failed idea. Ron Paul has the right idea. We have to take over the much smaller Republican Party and build from the ground up.
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Well, that’s one small step for the South. A return to antebellum small-government sensibilities would be a giant leap.
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“Tom Childers, the victor last Tuesday, has proven that a Democrat can win in a mostly rural, mostly white redneck bastion.”
Wow, here we go with “redneck” again. The use of this slur identifies perfectly the white classist masquerading as a white elitist. Apparently Mother Spencer didn’t teach Richard Spencer not to call those less fortunate insulting names, or how it depreciates his own claims to social standing and personal dignity.
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As the federal parties have
alienated almost the entire
American population, it is not
suprising to see the natural
coalescence of regional politics
(which is anathema to everything
socialist.)
Ron Paul is a very good example
of the strength found in those
communites that still manage a
common fraternity based on mutual
values and respect.
Thank heaven for the backward
rednecks of Texas’s 14th district
which withstood years and years
of national party assaults to
unseat the greatest statesman our
country has produced in my
lifetime.
One reason Paul has been able
to carry this fight to the nation
is the regional solidarity of his
district.
The sooner we as a nation return
to the DIVERSITY of local communal
politics and economics the better
off we will be
and the closer we will come to
the original inspiration of the
American revolution and the
Constitution thereof.
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The sooner we as a nation return
to the DIVERSITY of local communal
politics and economics the better
off we will be
and the closer we will come to
the original inspiration of the
American revolution and the
Constitution thereof.
Yes--but how viable are third-party candidates at the local levels?
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Bo, I used redneck as a term of endearment; sorry, if I offended.
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pb, yes the problem is product
branding. We no longer read the
ingredients but simply trust the
label. Third parties are new
brands without familiarity.
How to introduce them is the
current dilemma. Ron Paul is
right to not go 3rd party but to
continue to expose the toxic
ingredients in the GOP.
Until we(he) discredit(s)
the current brand there is no
reason to switch or motivate a
change. Thanks to Ron Paul this
is happening. Dr.Paul didn’t
accomplish this by branding
himself a Republican, he did it
by branding himself as honest.
It really is that simple. We here
in the 14th district trust him to
always tell us the truth no matter
what, and for that we are ever
greatfull. In fact, the entire
district knows he is really a
libertarian and we laugh at the
Republican attempts to dislodge
him. In one re-election they ran
Nancy Sinatra against him and of
course she doesn’t even live in
our backwoods. Ha! What a laugh.
This alone exposed the GOP for
what they really are and it was
well noticed.
The entire nation owes him a debt
of gratitude.
Can we pick a winner or what?!
Mr.Spencer,
I rather like the word “redneck”
as it implies hard work from
the “gitter done” class of white
Americans. Only the use of
adjectives can cast it negatively
such as “weeping rednecks,” or
“scardey-cat rednecks.”
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