Democrats Can Win in the South Again: Here's a Simple Strategy for Hillary 2016
....John Cassidy of The New Yorker got it right. “If the Democratic Party wants to be a national party of government,” Cassidy wrote, “it needs to retain and expand its presence in the South, rather than neglecting it. And if it’s serious about offering hope and encouragement to Americans of all classes and ethnic groups, it can’t seriously consider giving up on what is still the most deprived region of the country. Even if the Democrats don’t need the South—and I think they do—the South needs the Democratic Party.”...
Speaking as a southerner, we need help, not from the DCCC but from government to deal with issues like homelessness and drug addiction. The worst poverty in the United States is in Mississippi, Arizona, New Mexico, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas, South Carolina and Louisiana. But no Democratic coalition can make a difference here through policy without the support of southern voters, and the visual reassurance of southern politicians.
Democrats can win in Virginia and North Carolina, and at least be competitive in Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, and West Virginia. The problem is turnout. November’s election saw the worst turnout since 1942, when millions of Americans were overseas fighting in the Second World War....
The Democratic Party's coalition is stronger and better prepared for America's future demographic thanks to their stance on civil rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights. But Democrats should be both an inclusive and a Jacksonian party willing to fight for the little guy. As Kevin Barker aptly put it in The New York Times, “Why try to cast yourselves as economic moderates and cultural progressives when the disparate elements of your coalition have little in common culturally, but are all struggling with the same wretched economy?"...
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120534/democrats-southern-strategy-should-focus-poor-non-voters?utm_content=buffer27596&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The New Republic
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