The Nation

An in-depth and excellent look at the GOP's redistricting strategy, written by Ari Berman at The Nation.

The use of race in redistricting is just one part of a broader racial strategy used by Southern Republicans to not only make it more difficult for minorities to vote and to limit their electoral influence but to pass draconian anti-immigration laws, end integrated busing, drug-test welfare recipients and curb the ability of death-row inmates to challenge convictions based on racial bias ... The new Southern Strategy, it turns out, isn’t very different from the old one.

Good question, have we completely surrendered the ship to corporations and the wealthy? The Nation offers a really relevant piece on that:

We have reached a pivotal moment in government and politics, and it feels like the last, groaning spasms of New Deal liberalism. When the party of activist government, faced with an epic crisis, will not use government's extensive powers to reverse the economic disorders and heal deepening social deterioration, then it must be the end of the line for the governing ideology inherited from Roosevelt, Truman and Johnson.

Apologies if this has been posted; did a search and did not find it. From the Feb 22, 2010 edition of The Nation -- I believe it sums up the feelings of many progressive voters very well:

How to Get Our Democracy Back

If You Want Change, You Have to Change Congress
By Lawrence Lessig

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy's history. The feeling was palpable--to supporters and opponents alike--that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and small-dollar contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

One of the best articles I've read on Blue Dogs appeared recently in The Nation. Here's a couple brief excerpts:

The Blue Dogs come largely from rural and Southern districts, and often campaign by distancing themselves from the national party. Their support comes from voters who are conservative on social issues like guns and abortion. But on bread-and-butter concerns, these legislators are voting with their contributors, not their constituents.

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.

We recently got an email from a publicity coordinator of The Nation, who wanted to call our attention to this excellent piece by Bob Moser, currently running in the magazine. You have to admire a publicist who digs in to the blogosphere to spread the word about an article, even if he does laud lavish compliments on our labor of love here in the Old North State.

Taking a tour of southern blogs recently, I've been really impressed with BlueNC's comprehensive, nuts and bolts coverage. We here at The Nation wanted to let you know about our cover story this week, "The Way Down South." In the article, Bob Moser, one of our contributing writers, explores the relationship between the Dems and the South and its implications for the future of the Democratic party. We'd like this to be part of a larger conversation, one we hope you and your readers will be part of.

In the November 20 edition of The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel gives a list of ten things we should consider to strengthen our democracy here at home. With voters being dropped from the rolls with no notice, machines counting votes that can never be verified and voters staying home in record numbers it is obvious we have a problem in this country.

Many of her ideas have already been discussed here in the pages of BlueNC. I think these are discussions we should continue, especially with the elections over and problems we might have encountered fresh on our minds.

The piece by Katrina is subscription only, but I don't think she will mind if I list all ten of her suggestions to help guide our discussions. Also, for those subscribers, here is a link. I'm not sure I agree with everything she says, but the piece and the subsequent letters to the editor printed in this past week's edition give a great starting place for those of us who follow elections.

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