Whistling WITH Dixie: Why the 50 State Strategy Will Work

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 01:18:58 PM EST
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Tom Schaller is a very bright political observer who has ignited some controversy with his book "Whistling Past Dixie," which discusses the Democratic majority and how the South is NOT a part of it. Today, it becomes Topic A as Markos described.

To me, Schaller's empirical point is self evident, and I thought so and argued so since November 2004. But I think it is time to look forward and discuss how we can absorb the evidence Schaller provides, win now in the Democratic majority part of the country while continuing to work hard to win in all 50 states. Yes, the 50 State Strategy holds the answer:

Devolution of power in the Democratic Party is inextricably tied to Dean's 50 state strategy. . . . [T]he idea of a 50 state Democratic Party is sound, even essential, to its continued relevance. It is no secret that I am a proponent of a politics of contrast for Dems. I am also a proponent of a Big Tent Dem Party. Are these two ideas mutually exclusive? I think not. For example, while I am skeptical of a short term strategy that can deliver significant wins for Dems in the South, the medium and long term offer opportunities. But I think they come from the devolution strategy that Howard Dean is trying to execute, creating strong state Democratic parties that control their own local message. National branding still requires a national message and, more importantly, negative branding of the Republicans.

Tom Schaller's truculence is somewhat understandable. He has been hit with some unfair attacks:

At mydd, Jerome Armstrong criticizes Tom Schaller for his thesis (it is mine too) that Democrats can not shape their message determined to do better in the South. Like Schaller, I thiink it is not the right approach for Democrats. Armstrong writes:

Stoller's argument ends with a point that might charitably be called a caveat: Maybe there's something I don't get about how special the South is. And that serves as a segue into talking about Tom Schaller's book, "Whistling Past Dixie". It's a point to which a southerner might reply as "typical yankee shit". It's a rather remarkable book though, using statistics to make the case that Democrats can win a majority without the south. And that's probably true, but it's Schaller's first recomendation on "The Path to a National Democratic Majority", that Democrats define the south in the most denigrate ways, to run against the south for an enduring majority, that is morally and strategically wrong.

This is misstatement from Armstrong. The strategy is NOT to denigrate the South, it is to NOT kowtow to it. It is to paint the GOP as extreme and unacceptable. Not to paint the South as anything. It is to use the power of negative branding against the GOP, NOT against the South. Armstrong misuderstands the difference between national branding and the 50 state strategy of devolution of power to state parties. He really muddles the entire subject. Not his best by a long shot.

Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy is the path that allows Democrats to adapt to the realities Schaller describes while at the same time searching for the effective political prescriptions for the South. As I wrote, the devolution of power to the state parties is the essential component:

I did support his run for DNC Chairman, I thought he could bring an energy and a grassroots following to our Party, which was sorely in need of it.

But I think Dean has brought a vision that is as valuable as that energy - and that vision is described thusly in Matt Bai's NYTimes Sunday Magazine piece:

the Democratic Party needed to be decentralized, so that grass-roots Democrats built relationships with their state parties but had little to do with Washington at all. "State parties are not the intermediaries," he said. "If I get them trained right, they're the principals."

In other words, I suggested, he was talking about "devolving" the national Democratic Party, in the same way that Reagan and other conservative ideologues had always talked about devolving the federal government and returning power to the states. "That's what I want to do," Dean said firmly.

Matt Bai misinterpets this vision as an attack on the national party structure - an attempt to "starve the beast" to irrelevance, Bai called it. I think it is quite the opposite. It is an attempt to renew the relevance of the Democratic Party as a whole, which is much more than the DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., indeed the heart and soul of the Party is the millions of Democrats across the nation - our Big Tent.

Multiple local and regional Dem messages are necessary. The Big Tent. And Howard Dean understands this. Thus his devolution strategy is essential to making a national Democratic Party, a Big Tent Democratic Party, a relevant and powerful reality. The devil is in the details of course, but the big picture is essential, and I think Dean gets the big picture.

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Whistling WITH Dixie: Why the 50 State Strategy Will Work | 6 comments (6 topical)

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The 50-state strategy worked exremely... (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Bill Arnett on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 01:39:30 PM EST

...well and Dean deserves the credit for sticking to his guns.

The other thing he emphasizes is that we must have candidates in all races and those candidates need to ASK people for their vote.

Republicans started this years ago. If there was a race for dogcatcher they would put up a republican candidate, and the same strategy will work for us now.

It may work even better now that the rethugs have such a solid record of incompetence and inability to govern or provide even the most basic services to the public in an emergency for us to run against. They have shown that, as a party, they lack the will, the intelligence, the ability, and the desire to act for the common good of all Americans.

Their shocking deficiencies as a party served as an excellent wake-up call to America.

Howard Dean (none / 0) (#2)
by Che's Lounge on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 10:01:07 PM EST

and the netroots together might just save the USA.

Absolutely excellent (none / 0) (#3)
by mclaren on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 12:16:39 AM EST

And long overdue. "Are these two ideas mutually exclusive? I think not. For example, while I am skeptical of a short term strategy that can deliver significant wins for Dems in the South, the medium and long term offer opportunities."

The proof that the medium and long term offers not just possibilities, but the real prospect of substantial change throughout the deep south, comes from history. Just look at the south 55 years ago. "Colored only" drinking fountains and rest rooms, lynchers acquitted in fake show trials... Yet today, that's all changed.

And it didn't change by denigrating the South or by passing federal laws that would make a futile effort to legislate morality and conscience. I'm convinced the behavior and attitudes of the people in the South changed over the last 55 years because of the patient moral suasion of the rest of the nation -- indeed, the rest of the world. When U. N. Ambassadors from Africa found themselves turned away from southern all-white hotels in the 1950s, the entire world became embarrassed. This kind of silent but powerful dismay built up over time and had a huge effect. Eventually, Southerners just got sick of making excuses and slowly changed their attitudes.

The same thing will happen eventually with deep-South peculiarities like Creation museums and anti-abortion fervor and homophobia. Time will take its toll on this kind of hate-mongering. Democrats don't have to do anything in particular, just point out to Southerners that we respect their culture and their values even though we disagree on some things... And eventually, as more and more sons and daughters come out of the closet as gay, and as more and more wives find themselves pregnant with a foetus that suffers from horrible congenital deformities and decide to have an abortion, and as more and more abortion clinic bombings go wrong and kill innocent people in tragic and senseless violence, (even the most hardened zealots in the deep South) that hate mongering and witch hunts aren't the way to run a society.

The single biggest need the deep South has is for education, and after that, medical care, especially for the rural poor and young people. A highly educated South with good medical would, I am convinced, be a solidly Democratic south. A disproportionate number of states in the deep South score at the bottom in statewide school test scores and at the top of infant mortality statistics. Changing this will change the deep South more than anything else. People gravitate toward hate mongers when they slide to the bottom of the society and feel marginalized and discarded. The South has had a problem with feeling that way ever since 1865. I think the solution isn't to beat the South down by passing federal laws or sending in the national guard or marginzalizing Southern politicians -- it's to lift the South up by pointing out (and, better, showing them) that there are better ways of working together than by screaming howls of hate or trying to ferret out "Defeat-o-crats" and "traitors." That doesn't work in the long run, because all persecutions eventually turn on the persecutors -- as Robespierre learned 200 years ago.

Above all, we need to provide a a generous and caring example for the people of the South. Just because the Demos have control of both houses of Congress in this election cycle doesn't mean we're not interested in their views, and it certainly doesn't mean we think we're morally superior to them. There are Creation museums in California and lynchings go on in South Dakota.
The best thing we can do to move America forward is the exact opposite of the Republican Devolution of the 90s. We need to reach out across the aisle, maintain total transparency in the political process, and police corruption in the Democratic party first and foremost, before all else. If we do that, we will lead by example. Common decency exerts a tremendous gravitational attraction. I think that's our winning platform as Democrats.

: Come on down (none / 0) (#6)
by jimakaPPJ on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 09:12:09 AM EST

Well you talk good, but then demonstrate a total lack of knowledge, and that leads you to insult a whole region.

The single biggest need the deep South has is for education, and after that, medical care, especially for the rural poor and young people.
I guess you have never visited the schools in the slums of LA, Chicago, Philadephia.... Nor have you the vaguest idea of medical care available. Why, even Alabama has medicaid! And Tennessee led the nation with TennCare.
As for education, I invite you to review the state systems of the huge land grant schools as well as community colleges and tech schools. And then we have Gegoria Tech, Vanderbilt
Your attitude was well demonstrated when John Kerry asked, "Can I buy me hunting license here?"

Above all, we need to provide a a generous and caring example for the people of the South.

Does this mean that you will stop the riots in LA?
mclaren, I was born a sharecropper's son. I watched my father go to war, educate himself, buy a farm and become a skilled union machinist. I know discrimination up close and personal and I find your comments not only wrong, but insulting.
You do what you accuse others of. We used to call you a "limousine liberal." Actually you weren't liberal.
Instead of watching TV and old movies, come on down and live here for a while. But be careful how you use the word "boy" should you get stopped for speeding. That black deputy sheriff, the black high sheriff, the black judge, the black mayor and the black majority on the jury don't have a sense of humor about some things.

Lynchings go on in SD? (none / 0) (#4)
by aw on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 08:43:32 AM EST

There are Creation museums in California and lynchings go on in South Dakota.

Did you really mean to say that? Out of curiosity I googled it, and found a table of lynching stats from 1882-1968. There were 27 lynchings of whites only in South Dakota, and reading further, that most lynchings in the west for for cattle theft or murder. Have you heard of any since then?

: Just to be clear (none / 0) (#5)
by aw on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 08:44:27 AM EST

this is in reply to the post by mclaren above.