Songs of self-pity from the Southland

Absolutely magnificent Howler on the subject of whether the Democrats lose because their candidates routinely sneer at middle American values:

Why did this reader vote for Bush? He says the Democratic Party has “belittled his beliefs, dismissing them out of hand,” and has “addressed him publicly as intellectually challenged for holding to the faith of my fathers.” Oops, sorry—one clarification. The readers says the Democratic Party and/or those people who purport to speak for it has engaged in this behavior.
Let’s ignore that expansive escape clause and think of the Dem Party proper. We think it’s time for readers like this to name the names of actual Dems who have actually belittled them in this manner. Who exactly “addressed him publicly as intellectually challenged for holding to the faith of his fathers?” Was it Southern Baptist Bill Clinton, from Hot Springs, Arkansas? Was it Southern Baptist Al Gore, from Carthage, Tennessee? Was it Jimmy Carter? Was it Joe Lieberman? Was it John Edwards, from the reader’s own state? Or was it French-speaking John Kerry himself, the haughty man who dares to wind-surf? If so, when did this insult occur? When exactly has any Dem leader ever behaved in the manner described? When exactly did the Dem Party belittle the reader’s religious beliefs and “address him publicly as intellectually challenged?” When exactly did this occur? Or did it really occur in a dream? Or perhaps in a rant on talk radio?

Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo! For ourselves, we’re tired of all the blubbering self-pity which emanates hourly from talk radio. We heard it yesterday, right here in this city, as a “balanced” panel of four talk-show conservatives cried about “elitist” Dems who went to Harvard. Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo! Big wet tears splashed down their cheeks as these fakers and phonies tossed hay to the herd. For ourselves, we’re tired of being polite about all this self-pity and fakery. We think it’s time for Alterman’s reader to stand up on his feet like a man and name the names of the actual Dems who actually behaved in this manner.

Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo! The e-mailer thinks Iraq “is a train wreck and we need a entirely new direction.” But so what? He went ahead and voted for George Bush anyway—because he says that someone has belittled his faith. For ourselves, we’re tired of seeing “red-state” belly-achers turn off their radios and get a free pass on claims of this kind. Who is it? With respect to Alterman’s reader, who has “belittled his beliefs, dismissing them out of hand, and addressed him publicly as intellectually challenged?” It’s time for these people to name a few names—and it’s time for Dems, libs and centrists to make them.

So to Alterman’s reader, we pose these question: Who was it? Was it Clinton? Gore? Kerry? Who exactly belittled your beliefs? Try to stop crying for maybe five minutes and tell us which Dems deserve reproach. Or failing that, could you maybe (quoting Bill O’Reilly) just shut up?

Memo to the next Kristof/Wilkinson/Drum who wants to reify these slanders–please cite some actual examples. Not from blog comments or campus newspapers, but from actual Democratic politicians. Failing this, cut it out. Please do stop being part of the problem. It’s bad enough that we have to deal with this regional prejudice–we certainly don’t have to help.

Somerby makes another good point about the futility of Dems thinking they can avoid these smears by just selecting the right candidate and abasing themselves. Lesse, our last candidate was Al Gore, a very religious Southerner. His wife founded the PMRC. His running mate was a moralizing blowhard so reactionary Bill Buckley supported his first Senate campaign. What happened? Gore was, of course, branded as an out-of-touch cultural elitists. Look, people–the Rethuglicans will say this about anyone. He need to look for good ways to rebut and react to this reality, not pretend it can just go away with strategy X or candidate Y. This rancid regional chauvinism has treated the GOP very, very well; they’re not giving it up anytime soon no matter what we do.