Papantonio: Democrats – Leave The South NOW!

[GoLeft TV]

I saw another one of those commentaries where the Democratic talking head is explaining how difficult it is for a Democrat to win down in the new Republican south. Reorganization ideas like the Blue South Project pop up about every year with that new plan to reinvigorate Democrats in the solid red states like Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia – Seriously?

Its not a complicated problem – just be patient, just wait – demographic shifts will be the only thing that reinvigorates Democrats in the South. Racist, angry, old white men and women have to finally give up the ghost. Minority voters have to begin taking voting more seriously. Time will cure the problem – the sound of dueling banjos and rebel yells are not far from being a distant memory.

[Stevepol]

1. Right!

Progressives: We are what we are. Be proud of it!!

[msongs]

2. Alabama and Miss. dems move to Texas! we win texas while still losing AL & MS nt

[carolinayellowdog]

3. anyone telling Virginia Democrats to leave Virginia is an enemy of ALL Democrats

Same goes for Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. This guy is a hatemongering idiot and an implicit racist who is calling all the black migrants from north to south over two decades to turn around. No one is stupid enough to follow his advice although some who are not in the South are too ignorant to realize how stupid it is in light of this:

Last year, the Times described the South's share of black population growth as "about half the country's total in the 1970s, two-thirds in the 1990s and three-quarters in the decade that just ended."

Many of the migrants are "buppies" -- young, college-educated, upwardly mobile black professionals -- and older retirees. Over the last two decades, according to the Census, the states with the biggest gains in black population have been Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas and Florida. New York, Illinois and Michigan have seen the greatest losses. Today, 57 percent of American blacks live in the South -- the highest percentage in a half-century.

Much of the migration has been urban-to-urban. During the first decade of this century, according to Brookings Institution demographer Bill Frey, the cities making the biggest gains in black population were Atlanta, Dallas and Houston. Meanwhile, New York City's black population fell by 67,709, Chicago's by 58,225, Detroit's by 37,603.

on edit-- I notice that he mostly is talking about the Deep South, but slides back and forth between references to the Deep South and to "the South" in general. Some states may be hopeless in the near term but his broadbrush divisive bullshit throws us all into the same irredeemable and disposable category, including 57% of black Americans. See also this more recent BET story:

http://www.bet.com/news/national/2014/03/24/black-migration-is-now-from-north-to-south.html

[Dustlawyer]

4. You must not watch a lot of his videos posted here. Pap is not a racists, although I do not agree

with all of this video either. It is not just blacks moving from North to the South either, a lot of people are moving here for the lower cost of living and to find a job. Unfortunately, in Texas at least the new jobs don't pay much and they can fire you for no reason what so ever. Our big problem here other than these old white guys, is the very low minority voting turn out. We need to find a way to get minorities to regularly vote, instead of just when a strong, black man is running for President.
Give Pap a second chance and go to "Ring of Fire" website. I think you will find that you agree with way more than you disagree.

[carolinayellowdog]

10. "Implicit" racism is not the same thing as explicit, and this rant reeks of the former

It immediately struck me as bizarre that Mike P. has far more of a southern accent than I do yet is engaging in this broadbrush "leave the South NOW" attack on southern Dems. So I googled him and found that he lives in Pensacola! No shit, Sherlock, leave the redneckiest part of your own state and you might find your angst and despair reduced considerably. But for God's sake don't project it across the entire region! (He says he's a Methodist and having been brought up as one I think this rant is SPIRITUALLY shameful.) I'm from Chesapeake originally, home of the Christian coalition and CBN and CARRIED BY OBAMA in 2012 despite Pat Robertson who makes a good hatemongering emblem for Papantonio.

What is implicitly racist is that the "progressives" he's urging to leave the South NOW are white and have the resources to pull up stakes and move, and MOST of the fellow Dems he's urging them to leave to their own devices, and at the mercy of the common Republican enemy, are poor and black. Most of this "get rid of those poor, ignorant Southerners" eliminationist rhetoric we see at DU is implicitly racist, in that it only acknowledges the existence of the white "red-state" redneck element of that equation, and DOES NOT EVEN SEE THE POOR, UNEDUCATED, BLACK DEMOCRATS that it is recommending be abandoned by the rest of the nation.

Shameful that this rant got 28 recs.

[ancianita]

16. Pensacola, its right wing military population and the whole panhandle are part of the deep South.

The culture of Alabama and Georgia are strong in Florida all the way to Okeechobee. I moved all over that state in 24 years, coast to coast, Ocala to Tallahassee, and I saw what Pap sees.

I don't agree with any implication that Democrats should move, but I do agree with the implication that the national progressives, by believing that patience will win out, are wasting their time with blue dog Dems from the South.

I have family there so I mean no offense to Southerners, either.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Agreed. I am not going anywhere. Plan on fighting to the bitter end.

"broadbrush divisive bullshit" Indeed!

Love, Peace and Shelter.
~ littlemissmartypants

[Ned_Devine]

8. He said West Virginia.

[carolinayellowdog]

11. He said "the South"

and showed footage of the most disgusting Virginian in recent history while ignoring that we have two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor, and gave electoral votes to Obama twice

[Overseas]

6. K&R! Beautifully said! Excellent idea!

I'd love it if Democrats did that.

[annominous]

7. Papantonio is a real American patriot

as are his Ring-of-Fire cohorts RFKJr and Sam Seder. They, all three, display uncommon common sense.

Thanks for posting this, I had missed it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. At this point the whites of the South believe the "DemocRAT party" is pure EVIL....

Many don't like the GOP but now really believe they HAVE to vote for the Party of White Males or the blacks will take over.

One thing I DO agree with is the Democrats are OBSESSED with the South. They need to look at the electoral map when George Wallace ran to see they can win without a single vote from the racist South.



Of course, that election also showed we have our hands full trying to win over the rest of the country which was suckered into voting for Nixon on a "law and order" platform.

The Right back then thought the biggest internal threat to the nation was the Hippies with all that talk of "peace".

[carolinayellowdog]

12. Millionaire Florida lawyer orders immediate emigration of 17,696,963 Southern Democrats

So I googled a bit more about Pap of this attack, and was aghast that he's allied with an environmentalist like RFK Jr. What happens to the environment in the 11 former Confederate states if all the Democrats migrate immediately, NOW, because he orders us to? He obviously cares no more about all other living species than about the humans who would suffer massively if his casual suggestion were taken seriously.

Just counting 2012 Obama voters: 4,235,270 Floridians and 1,905,528 Virginians should immediately abandon their homes, families, jobs, and property. Even though they carried their states for the Democrat in the 2012 election. Add 3,294,440 Texans, 2,178,388 North Carolinians, 1,761,761 Georgians and another four or five million Southern Democrats. LEAVE NOW because some irresponsible radio talking head ordered you to. Never mind the cost.

The implicit classism as well as racism of the "leave now" advice to all these millions of Democrats is just astonishing.

[Leontius]

13. Just three words for him "Kiss my Ass"

[RebelOne]

14. I live in the deep south red state of Georgia.

And I am staying put.

[ancianita]

15. The ignorant, self-reinforcing narratives of the South are hard to replace. Pap knows this.

44 years ago I left the South. I'd lived in northern Florida and Georgia. I thought Southern sickness might change in a generation, but that hasn't happened.

I've also seen this call for patience for decades, but patience allows too much room for racists and angry old white men's sickness to become contagious and intractable.

Croakerfish, indeed. Papantonio is right. If we waste time on the South, we're prolonging our pain of keeping the South, that doesn't to love Democrats, in a vision of "united," in a country that just isn't. We do need to stop pulling in pandering Democrats who ruin our better chances to run the country in DC without them.

How I understand his analysis is that Pap is telling the party to leave the South; he's not telling its resident Democrats to. We're supporting, not abandoning Southern Democrats, by making the party's resources and efforts work for good national governance.

They know the deal. They'll help their fellow Southerners come along, kicking and screaming, as they have in the past.