Interesting punditry tonight from Tom "screw the south" Schaller

[Recursion]

Schaller wrote the book "Whistling Past Dixie", a guide for Dem victories that don't include the South. He had some very interesting points on NPR today. Basically his argument was that this will be seen as a realignment year for a crucial reason: this is the first time in a century that the majority party in the South has been the minority party in Congress.

Someone from TNR asked him the old, "but how can anybody get a majority while ignoring the South?" and he said, "look at the election: they did it." His argument is that Democrats can (and, indeed, now have) won a majority with

1) the "four corners" base
2) the rust belt
3) the mountain west

leaving the South/Sun Belt crescent to the mouth-breathers.

Schaller also smacked down the soon-to-be-conventional-wisdom that we won by running Conservative candidates: he pointed out that 3/4 of our House pickups were liberal Dems beating moderate Republicans and RINOs. Casey/Santorum and Webb/Allen were more spectacular, but Whitehouse/Chafee was the model that won the house.

I'm sold on the 50-state idea so I can't say I'm down with abandoning the South, but I think it's a really interesting point: we don't have to sell out our principles to win Alabama, because we can keep our principles and win Illinois and Colorado.

[Ignacio Upton]

1. We should not abandon the 50-state strategy

But some states deserve more attention than others considering our chances. Howevever, the Mountain West, not he South, will likely be that red region that turns blue.

[rockymountaindem]

2. I agree with everything you said n/t

[Syrinx]

3. wrong

We could have picked up a seat here in Alabama if the DNC had chipped in a few bucks. A guy named Greg Pierce literally had no money, and virtually no campaign, yet he still got 41% of the vote. He could've won with a little help from the DNC.

[BurtWorm]

6. Or the DCCC.

[Syrinx]

7. agreed. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

4. We might have had a dem gov here

with a little help in Fl too and I am pissed.

[BurtWorm]

5. If Alabama won't move to progressive values

then progressive values have to be brought to Alabama. Democrats don't have to pander to Alabama, in other words. But Democrats shouldn't be content to leave Alabama to the yahoos. It's not fair to Alabamans.

[Syrinx]

8. thank you!

:)

[JeffR]

9. Damn right

Same goes for Georgia and the Carolinas. I hope the party doesn't give up on the South. Inroads may take longer there than in some parts of the country, but they can happen.