Maggie says:
For all you fellow transplanted Southern progressives, Facing South is a blog you must check out. I found it over the holidays and check in with it every few days. They pull together some great stuff and I'm continually impressed with their parent organization The Institute for Southern Studies. And if their magazine Southern Exposure is ever hiring, well let's just say I'd practically run home to Durham to apply.
That said, Facing South has some great data on Southern love for Bush, which is not quite living up to its stereotype. Check this out:
It may be more surprising to realize that most of Bush's support isn't in the South, but in the Plains and the West. Only three Southern states -- Texas, Alabama and Mississippi -- are in the top 10 Bush-liking states, and those are the only Southern states where his "approves" outnumber his "disapproves." Here's Survey USA's graph, ranked by "net approval rating" (approves minus disapproves):
Louisiana: 48% approve, 49% disapprove
Georgia: 47% approve, 51% disapprove
North Carolina: 46% approve, 51% disapprove
South Carolina: 45% approve, 51% disapprove
Tennessee: 45% approve, 51% disapprove
Kentucky: 44% approve, 52% disapprove
I finally started reading What's the Matter with Kansas? this week and feel like every page is a shot to the heart of Democratic-politics-as-usual to stop screwing up and start getting it right. This begins with a return to a populist message, a connection to real people and what they most need, and an ability to cut through the garbage so that average people will vote for their own interests again, instead of throwing away their jobs and wages by taking a stand for the right of The Ten Commandments to be posted on the town square. I think John Edwards embodies this message more than anyone around mainstream politics right now; it's likely no coincidence that he's become more effective the farther he's removed himself from mainstream Democrats.
To me, the South embodies so much of where Democrats have gone wrong. But as with most things, the answers lie in the simplest of places: in each other, in simple human connections. These numbers should be a call to the heart of Southern organizers to kick into high gear, to start working in a newer, better way. The numbers are close, but they show a big trend, a big change of heart. These numbers also represent a call to our hearts to stop buying into - and most importantly, to stop perpetuating - Rebublican- and corporate media-concocted notions of Blue America v. Red America, because it's just not true. We're a nation of people part red and part blue, all in different equations, none of us easy to pigeonhole and corner into an obvious vote. Nor should we be.
Only until we see Southerners - and the rest of the country - as complex people instead of Blue or Red Voters will progressives be welcomed back into the consciousness of this country. Politics as usual is over. Thank goodness.
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