A new "Solid South" ?

[M]

Louisiana is actually a very complicated state, and not typical of the South. It's not balck-white there, it's Cajun-NewOrleans French-Creole-standard black-Shreveport style Anglo-formerly irish new englanders whose ancestors came down to diveert the course of the Mississippi-Jmaican-Northern whites who think New Orleans is the place to be. Whew! Where does someone named Piyush fit in here?
Anyway, I'd say yes,  at present a new solid south is forming, and the dems are running out of time to make a comeback. With a candidate Dean, they're giving up 3 or 4 senate seats off the bat.

What do they need to do to fix this? First, they must be clear patriots, pro-military, believe that politics stops at the ocean shore. As in, "Beggin' you' pa'don, suh, but Ah'd be much obliged if you'd leave warrin' and such to the President. Support small government, rewducing bureacracy, and cutting taxes. No fancy TV media spin; the old Texas saying, "ya cain't shine sh**t," applies here. Just be honest. Stop the clear anti-Southern Bias in party circles (Yes, I'm talking about Dean, but also many others). Figure out that Dixie is not the Deutschlandlied, nor the stars and bars the swastika (and I'm Jewish, so don't try to tell me it is.)You might be able to get away with challenging the GOP on some social issues, although not, for example, gay marriage.

Can the Dems do this? Well, yeah. It would make Southern Dems win elections. It would also mean that the party 'neath the Mason Dixon had little or nothing to do with the one above it. It's been done before; that was the solid South era. (Although during this era there were big government Southern Dems, Google the Long brothers for example.)

Will they do it? No. They see the South as racist, cowboy, and clinging to a hateful and vile part of history. They see themselves as social progressives and Southerners as living in an archaic and barbaric era. The only Southrons they'll take under their wings are people like Mistuh John Edwahds, who tawks lahk mah aunt from Sath Ca'lahna, but has a distinctly national/northern platform.

[M]

Dean would be a flop in regions you may not even have imagined. He believes that a.) We are not at war b.) the popular wartime president with an impeccable reuptation is a fraud of the first order and, most significantly, c.) he believes the USA is just one of the nations, and not a particularly moral one at that. I am reminded of the Israelites approaching Samuel and saying they want a king, like all the other nations. Samuel says, "but you are not all the other nations. You are the chosen people!"

The fact that Dean not only believes these things but believes them so loudly locks him out of the entire South (likely including W Va), the Great Plains, parts of the Midwest, and the Heartland out of hand. THEN Bush goes on the offensive.

The outcome? It's not pretty. Dave has a nice map of it on the site under the name 1972.

[M]

And except for ego, the GOP gets no real advantage for winnig nearly every state. But what Dean is risking is significant losses in congress.

The party establishment- bith the Clinton center and the older, more lefty establishment- realize this and are trying hard to stop it. But, so far anyway, without great success.

I do think Bush has several aces in the hole in New York. They are: a.)September 11th b.) The GOP convention c.) Rudi d.) Wall Street with the economy revving up again

Would this pull it off? I'm not positive, but I think there's a good chance.

While overall there are fewer conservatives in big city areas than in '72, it is not quite as one-sided as it looks since suburbs generally lean GOP.