True Colors
Jim Wooten notes that Democrats in the South can only win by not revealing their true colors:
While waiting for his car in downtown Atlanta, [Georgia] House Speaker Terry Coleman (D-Eastman) makes small talk with two young men of college age, interns perhaps, at least one of whom plans to run for office.This is why a Howard Dean candidacy is so interesting. The president could defeat just about any Democratic nominee; but, with Howard Dean at the top of the ticket, Democrats won’t just be facing a disastrous presidential race. They’ll be facing annihilation in the South and the West. Hapless “moderate” Democrats in states like Georgia will face the prospect of running for re-election with an angry ultra-leftwing candidate at the top of the ticket.-- PoliPunditAs a reporter approaches from behind, the speaker is asking whether the lad intends to run as a Democrat or a Republican.
“A Republican, I’m sure,” the young man replies.
“Well, you can talk like one and be a Democrat,” Coleman advises.
Coleman, unaware of the reporter’s presence, has not inadvertently revealed the Coca-Cola formula. He has simply declared what every Southern Democrat knows to be true: If you talk like a national Democrat in Georgia, you win Atlanta and Decatur and are trounced elsewhere. You can, as former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland did, vote with the national Democratic Party, but not blatantly and religiously. Or you lose.
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On taxes, leading Democratic presidential contenders, such as Howard Dean, are already talking about raising them while repealing or reducing Bush’s tax cuts. On Iraq, they offer no coherent message or alternative, appearing to depend on bad news from the front to find openings.
As it drifts, the party is losing the middle class. “Among middle-class voters, the Democratic Party is a shadow of its former self,” Democratic pollster Mark J.Penn told the DLC this week. If it doesn’t find a way to appeal to more conservative mainstream voters, next year could be a disaster in this region, with Republicans winning Senate seats in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.
George McGovern, your party is waiting.