GregsOpinion.com

Endangered Species
by Clay Risen

Another noteworthy take ... or, I suppose ... "Even the Liberal New Republic" travels down south. One really poignant point made here that, I think, speaks to the root of southern Dems' interest in not seeing the party give up on the region:

...... Driving through Alabama, I saw countless signs denouncing an amendment that would have removed racist language from the state constitution; the proposal lost narrowly on November 2, and, a few weeks later, a recount confirmed that result. Apologists say the amendment failed because it also would have removed a line in the Constitution that rejects the right to an education, and the state Christian Coalition warned that the nefarious "right to education" movement would use the amendment to increase taxes to fund more schools and teachers. How this makes the outcome any less reprehensible is beyond me, but it seems to have assuaged the good folks of Alabama.

Such debacles highlight the plight of the white Southern liberal. On the one hand, you love your region in a way that other Americans can't understand. But you are also deeply shamed by its unwillingness to move forward on social issues. Such shame is a big reason why I don't move back and why thousands of other Southern liberals decamp annually for more enlightened locales. But my disaffection is different from the disdain for the South felt by, say, New York liberals. As the journalist W.J. Cash wrote in 1941, it is "the exasperated hate of a lover who cannot persuade the object of his affections to his desire." And so I and others are torn--Southern Writers Reading versus racist state constitutions.

Emphasis mine ... and I think that sentiment is pretty much dead-on. But Risen fits a good deal of understanding in more limited space offered in TNR. The conclusion captures much of what 40 years of history has to offer ...

White Southern liberals still exist, but they are too rarely a viable political or social presence, particularly in the Deep South of Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and rural Georgia. Back home in Nashville, I had lunch with one such rarity. David Carlton is a history professor at Vanderbilt University (and a Presbyterian church elder) who grew up in a South Carolina mill town before escaping north to Amherst. But he was drawn back, both by his intellectual pursuits and his regionalist pinings. Over sandwiches and coffee, he foretold of dark times. "I don't believe the political realignment of the region is complete yet," he said. "What appears to be an increasingly toxic blend of traditional conservatism and 'Christian' moralism continues to gain strength."

I heard Carlton's pessimism repeated in conversations throughout my trip. The fear is not simply that Republicans will continue to control the vast majority of the region's political offices; conservatism, as it is conventionally understood, tends not to draw the same ire from Southern liberals as it does nationally. Rather, it's that things like the Alabama amendment vote or the recent flap over anti-evolution disclaimers affixed to Cobb County, Georgia, textbooks show the powerful grip that religiously charged, anti-enlightenment conservatism has on the region, and that, without the moderating voice that the region's liberals once presented, these forces will eventually roll back even the modest social gains made during the heyday of Southern liberalism. In 1965, Percy wrote that "to use Faulkner's personae, the Gavin Stevenses have disappeared and the Snopeses have won." The plight of the Southern liberal is that, 40 years later, Percy's conclusion is more, not less, accurate.

Risen may make a bit more of the Alabama vote than is worthwhile. That such a vote might eke out it's own 50-50 victory might otherwise frighten any such person from points north. But when one considers how many GOP candidates win by such larger margins, the spectacle of a 50-50 vote given the ferocity (and disingenuity) of the debate over it and the spectre of a Presidential election pulling yet more red voters to the polls is, in the eyes of some of us, a sign of hope.

That said, there has been a rather unique disconnect between the partisan divide in the south and that elsewhere. I think it's a bit more fuzzy in the bigger states, such as TX and FL, but it's still there in parts. Part of the problem has been the lack of engagement in the south. But along with that, I argue, has been the overreactionary engagement on the part of some. Seeing the difference in these two problems explains part of why my politics are the way they are, I suppose. But if you hope to speak to voters who might be appreciative of both economic and cultural conservatism, I'd suggest you lose more often than not when you force them to decide exclusively in favor of the economic variety and allow the other side to fudge their argument to pick up voters who refuse to make a false choice between the two sides of their beliefs. Bill Clinton, much as Republicans hate to admit it, spoke to both sides and won. David Sirota offered Gene Taylor as an example of his own Divinci Code, but I'd offer that he also speaks to both fashions of conservatism. If the belief is that we can just shove a Thomas Franks book in front of such voters and force them to see things in strict economic terms, then we'll continue on down the same path we've been going for 40 years.

The need to re-engage in such areas necessitates the need among Democrats to speak more knowledgeably towards both constituencies. It's not that you may win them all over if you concede a little ground. But rather that you may win over more of them if you acknowledge the legitimacy of their concerns and put forth an alternative to address it. For too long, Democrats have just put forth a hard line "No" up against certain aspects of the conservative agenda. There are places to do just that. But there are now more places to greet old constituencies that we've long since stopped talking to. We didn't get here overnight, and if the conversation starts up tomorrow, the dividends won't show up in the next election. They can, however, show up over the course of a generation.