Southern Strategy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a waiter. For seven years. Before PCs. Back in the age of LPs and carbon paper. I remember one customer who, after he'd signed his credit card receipt and I handed him his copy, asked me to give him the carbons (back then we used carbon paper).

I must have had a puzzled look on my face because he asked if I knew why he wanted them. I didn't. He explained that it was because criminals sometimes go dumpster diving for carbons to steal credit card numbers. Huh? It would never have occurred to me, I said. That's because you don't have a criminal mind, he replied. Maybe for the first time it dawned on me that it takes a certain bent of mind to turn one's creativity to criminal mischief.

All that is preface to Ari Berman's new Nation  essay, "How the GOP Is Resegregating the South." In their vanity, some liberals like to think of themselves as more intelligent and creative than their conservative counterparts, but Berman shows just how creatively Republicans of a certain bent have twisted the Voting Rights Act to renovate their Southern Strategy and dilute minority influence -- by packing as many minority voters into as few congressional districts as possible.

In virtually every state in the South, at the Congressional and state level, Republicans—to protect and expand their gains in 2010—have increased the number of minority voters in majority-minority districts represented overwhelmingly by black Democrats while diluting the minority vote in swing or crossover districts held by white Democrats.

Including November outcomes, a lot remains uncertain in this election season, and redistricting accounts for a lot of it: who is in, who is out, who can run, who can vote and vote where. Much of the rhetoric and legislation from the Republican side has a retrograde feel to it. In the wake of Democratic gains in 2006 and 2008, and the economic collapse in 2008, the Republican strategy seems to be one, enormous rearguard action to forestall the inevitable as demographic reality slowly seeps in, one last, desperate culture war counteroffensive before the end. Emblematic of that is the open reemergence of the Southern Strategy, in rhetoric, legislation and redistricting. There will be more on Republican redistricting to come, but first some observations about the flavor of the Republican primaries.

Cross-post from Outlier Magazine Blog:

It was less than a generation ago when politicians rode the wave of overt racism into office and based their political staying power on their perceived harsh stance against the civil rights of "colored" people.

Our state's own Jesse Helms was really good at it. We'd like to think we've moved away from that sort of thing, but if Helms were still here, it seems clear that he'd probably still be representing North Carolina.

However racially enlightened we proclaim America to be, it is also clear that the GOP has been hijacked by the worst among us. The amazing thing, in a country that has elected it's first African American president, is the collective refusal to admit the raw covert racism that dominates our political discourse.

Tomorrow night, March 20 at 7p.m., at Wake Forest University Tom Schaller will debate Bob Moser on the question of the Democratic Party's strategy towards the South. The debate will be held in Room 1312 of the Worrell Professional Center and respondents include yours truly and Delmas Parker, second vice chair of the NC Democratic Party, along with David Coates, politics professor at Wake Forest.

This debate's genesis was a work of BlueNC and the blogosphere in more ways than one. Read the rest for more on the debate and on the blogosphere's role.

Recently I offered a piece about the Southern GOP as the leading element of the Republican Party and how that limits the party's popularity outside the South. In today's Washington Post Harold Meyerson's column describes his take on that same issue. It's well argued and I won't condense it here. However, this quote gives you some sense of his point of view...

For four decades, it's been the Democrats who've had a Southern problem... couldn't elect any senators, then any House members, then any dogcatchers. They still can't, but the Southern problem, it turns out, is really the Republicans'. They've become too Southern...

Remember the new conservative coalition that was to provide a "permanent Republican majority?" Today that pipe dream is mostly associated with Karl Rove, but originally it was envisioned by Richard Nixon as the fruit of his Southern Strategy. This strategy was supposed to retain the party's traditional Northeastern and Midwestern conservative base while reaching out to Southerners disaffected by civil rights and the role of Democrats in the demise of Jim Crow. It was designed to meld the Puritan tradition of small government and individual responsibility with the historical sense of loss and grievance that infected the South.