What Can Democrats Do To Win The ‘South’? Maybe Nothing.

Thomas Schaller has an article in the American Prospect about a forum he participated in at Yearly Kos with Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a political consultant specializing in how Democrats can appeal to voters in the South. Schaller makes the point that if we talk about problems the Democrats are having we’re talking about white southerners in the rural Deep South; Democrats do better than fine among black voters in the south, and can be competitive in urban and suburban areas. The ‘South’ that Democrats can’t win is the overwhelmingly Republican white Southern vote.

So how do we change this? Schaller says maybe we don’t. Maybe we put together coalitions of the more urban voters and the minority voters that we can win — voters in the Southern states, ever if they aren’t the cultural picture one has of the ‘South’, and maybe the conservative white voters will come along based on our performance in office. Paycheck issues help everyone out, after all. But trying to shape the Democratic party in the cultural mode of conservative Southern whites doesn’t seem terribly likely to get us anyplace. (also at Unfogged.)