A Union of Dunces

This post is a continuation of a recent post titled "Confederacy of Dunces." I know the line spacing is FUBAR but I'm too lazy to go through the HTML to find the problem.

I've done a bit more digging into the opinions on MyDD and DailyKos as to whether the South should be important to the national progressive movement. What I've found amounts to a full-blown debate. Simply glancing at the list of diaries tagged "The South" will give you an idea of what I mean.

In 2005, Tom Schaller wrote a book titled Whistling Past Dixie, in which he argues that national Democrats should ignore the South and build a permanent majority coalition by solidifying gains in the West and Mid-west. Though they often give lip-service to Howard Dean's Fifty-State Strategy, I feel that the primary contributors of DailyKos and MyDD generally agree with Schaller's thesis. I often read MyDD and Kos, and usually like their views (these sites allow members to sign up for free and write diaries. The best diaries on DailyKos are highlighted on the main page. Members and editors frequently make comments to further discussion).

For example, take the DailyKos diary "The South: Democrats Don't Get It" by someone called The Poet Laureate. In response to a different diary in which someone presents a stereotyped list of Southern white males, The Poet Laureate makes the following point in response to the stereotype of Southerners as gun-enthusiasts: "We do need to understand both the cultural relevance of guns in the South, however. We also need to understand that the South maintains the awareness of a distinct cultural identity in many respects, and Southerners are wary of "outsiders'" attempts to assimilate them to another culture. I suspect this is at the root of the Civil War obsession down here; it has less to do with resisting change and social progress than maintaining a unique identity."

National progressive's unwillingness to engage with the South comes from their ignorance of the South, and a selective memory that focuses on segregation and forgets the roots of American Populism.

Another diary, pico's "Kos is Wrong on Louisiana," does a nice job of summarizing the decline of recent pro-choice legislators in our great state. I quite like the way she finishes her piece:

We don't agree because we acknowledge that strongholds only become strongholds when the other side has allowed its presence to dwindle. That's the essence of Dean's strategy, and the contempt it received from Begala is not entirely different than the contempt some people have shown for the state of Louisiana.

So my question for the community is this: do we take the Dean route, roll up our sleeves, and get to work building grassroots efforts in Louisiana, or do we take the Begala route and avoid Louisiana completely?

Either way, let's give some respect to the liberals who have stayed behind, who are sitting on their porches in New Orleans, angry that the state around them has veered hard Right, frightened that violent crime has taken a sudden upswing, depressed that large chunks of the city are still in shambles, and uncertain as hell about the future. The last thing they need is to be dismissed by the rest of us. They need a bit of our support right now, if you can spare it.

I have given this a fair amount of thought, and while I remember a lot of right-wing reactionaries and fence-sitting politicians from my youth, I also have this vague feeling that Alexandria was nonetheless home to many a closeted progressive.

Another diary pointed me to the excellent article, "The Way Down South," on the subject at The Nation. I highly recommend reading this for those who are interested. One highlight includes this quote:

"Today the Democratic Party stands between two great forces.... On one side stand the corporate interests of the nation, its moneyed institutions, its aggregations of wealth and capital, imperious, arrogant, compassionless.... On the other side stands the unnumbered throng which gave a name to the Democratic Party and for which it has presumed to speak. Work-worn and dust-begrimed, they make their mute appeal, and too often find their cry for help beat in vain against the outer walls."

These words were spoken 114 years ago by William Jennings Bryan. Again, I'd like to copy the closing remarks of the essay:

And yet a stubborn belief in the poor, backward, reactionary cracker South of myth still shapes and distorts American politics. By surrendering the region, Democrats have simultaneously abandoned the old hope of a durable national progressive majority. They have passively allowed right-wingers to build a mighty fortress for the defense of free-market excess in a region that is home to almost half--47 percent--of the Americans who call themselves populists. They have allowed economic, racial and cultural divisions to fester. And now, even with the Republicans' Southern strategy wearing thin, they are lurching toward an even more dramatic break with the South.

It ain't wise, and it ain't right. I can't say it better than Chris Kromm, director of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina. "For Democrats to turn their back on a region that half of all African-Americans and a growing number of Latinos call home, a place devastated by Hurricane Katrina, plant closings, poverty and other indignities--in short, for progressives to give up on the very place where they could argue they are needed most--would rightfully be viewed as a historic retreat from the party's commitment to justice for all."

There are many reasons to be committed to either national political party. For me, I don't want Democrats to regain popularity in Louisiana because I don't like the GOP. I also don't like the idea of a national party having too much power in a place like Louisiana, where locals must have the ability to determine our own future. I'd like to see real progressives in our state because we desperately need innovative social policy and economic populism.

This weekend the transparently biased Dead Pelican linked to this opinion piece at the DailyKos about the challenges that Mary Landrieu will face in her upcoming election: "Why Mary Landrieu is the Most Endangered Democrat up for Reelection Next Year." The comments section is especially telling if you'd like to get a feel how the national liberal blogosphere feels about our Senator. Most think that she isn't progressive at all and a slave to our oil industry. Much of the debate is driven by ignorance of our local politics and a desire to recast our state in the mold of northern-style liberalism.

These are my people, yet they don't understand me at all.