The Deep South is conservative: we'll probably never win it. However, the outer South (Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee) is fairly populist/center-left economically. If Democrats stress those issues, instead of wedge issues, then it's easy to win the outer south. Realistically, the west can get us a total of about 30 electoral votes. The outer South can be up to 60.
Atl least someone realizes this. Leftists can and will win the Peripheral South so long as they tout their *P*opulist (not George Wallace *p*opulist) credentials. The Interior West is an electoral mirage--there is simply too stong of a strain of militant libertarianism for it to ever be reliably supportive of true leftist Democratic candidates. Even with the influx of Hispanics to the region, I think we may see widespread disfranchisement similar to what we'll probably see in the Deep South with African-Americans (IIRC, aren't some of the highest totals of voting rights greivances in in Georgia and Arizona?). When it comes to Northeast and Midwest states, we may see a similar, yet milder, situation in, particularly, New Jersey and Michigan.
