How Can Democrats Take the South? (local paper)

[carrowsboy]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780429250&path=%21editorials%21letters&s=1045855935005

How Can Democrats Take the South?

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Kathleen Parker's Op/Ed column about John Kerry failing to elicit the trust of Americans stated that his loss of the presidential election was due, in part, to "the way Kerry looked and talked."

I personally care not at all about a candidate's appearance; I leave that concern to the shallow and the uninformed. However, I have a sure-fire solution for the Democrats' recent election losses: adding a plank of virtual welfare abolishment to the Democratic platform.

In talking with fellow voters during recent years, I have observed a consensus, in which I include myself, that hard-working, tax-paying Americans who go to work every day are angry and fed up with supporting those who receive welfare and other government handouts that allow them to stay home rather than go to work. The anger is particularly directed toward inner-city welfare recipients who continue to have babies they cannot afford and whom they do not raise with any sense of right and wrong.

To win future elections, at least in the South, the Democratic Party may have to consider renouncing welfare for the able-bodied and propose a viable program of getting inner-city folks to work like the rest of us. Sandy Hartman. richmond.

[Maddy McCall]

1. Renounce welfare in the south? Bwahahahahahaha!!!

That's definitely not the issue upon which people's party affiliation in the south hangs. Try guns, abortion, and Jesus--oh, and in 2004, you can add gays to the list of pivotal issues. Welfare isn't even mentioned in southern elections anymore--it's accepted that, without welfare dollars, many businesses in the south would close.

[DaveinMD]

3. Mark Warner is the model

take the guns issue off the table. Then mix in some economic populism. You can still be pro-choice and win.

[carrowsboy]

4. personally

I found her letter to be somewhat racist.

Picking on the "urban" (aka black) single moms when it is whites who receive the majority of welfare benefits.

Not to mention all the corporate welfare (gov't contracts) that we are footing the bill for.

[Dems Will Win]

30. Tell the Evangelicals the Repubs are letting Polygamy come to their state

It's true--and when they find that out they will vote Democrat to stop the Republican-subsidized and supported POLYGAMY AGENDA.

Rural Southern Christians typically vote out of fear only. Polygamy is the one thing they fear the most. USE IT!

And remember! The polygamists says the Bible and Jesus thought polygamy was OK. Tell that to your FREEPER friends and family and watch the feathers fly!

http://www.polygamy.com

http://www.polygamy.org /

http://www.lds-mormon.com/mormon_polygamy.shtml

http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/polygamy.html

http://www.christianpolygamy.com /

http://www.answering-christianity.com/ntpoly.htm

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/f05.html

http://childbrides.org/canada.html

[Dems Will Win]

31. Oh and 33% of Mormon Polygamists (FLDS) are on WELFARE!!!!

ILLEGAL POLYGAMY IS THE ULTIMATE WEDGE ISSUE IN THE SOUTH FOR DEMOCRATS

[sandnsea]

2. Red State Welfare

Somebody needs to send this southern belle the map.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. Wonder where Sandy keeps her sheet?

"toward inner-city welfare recipients who continue to have babies they cannot afford and whom they do not raise with any sense of right and wrong"


Alert the KKK, Sandy would make a great spokesperson for them.

[autorank]

6. This letter is a joke.

"inner-city welfare recipients who continue to have babies they cannot afford"...oh, sure and the same person who wrote this is probably anti-abortion to the max.

"renouncing welfare for the able-bodied and propose a viable program of getting inner-city folks to work like the rest of us." Numerically, most welfare recipients are white. There are many in the South in rural areas, white, on welfare. In fact, major portions of the South benefit from major federal subsidies, e.g., The Tenn. Valley Authority.

BTW, Clinton did a major number on welfare and the South abandoned Gore.

Give me a break! You win the South by campaigning there, having a real program, and fighting like Hell; not by pandering to this type of misinformed, not so subtly bigoted rot.

[eg101]

7. don't "take the South": turn the South Left, instead

wage a campaign of ideas in the next 3 years, and then even the GOP will turn left.

[AP]

8. If you give people opportunity, the take it. When you don't give people

opportunity, they have nothing to take.

People who don't see that Democrats are the party of opportunity and Republicans are the party that relies on misery need to rethink what's going on in the world.

They also need to realize that a social safety net is actually the thing that is keeping wages reasonable. More desperation is just going to take more wealth out of working class in the form of lower wages, lost opportunity and destroyed neighborhoods.

[Sleepless In NY]

10. It should be asked what the Republicans have done for theSouth

I know Howard Dean brought this up once & I'm surprised the democrats haven't picked up on it & made an issue of it. And yes, someone should also remind them about Red State Welfare.

[AP]

29. Clinton says in My Life that one of the biggest reasons...

...people did not want to move off welfare was because the entry level jobs available to them didn't provide health insurance, yet, if they were on welfare at least they could get Medicare (medicaid?).

These people aren't lazy. They're rational. Give people health insurance whether they're emloyed or unemployed, and society will be better off.

[Democrat Dragon]

9. I'm sure the Dem agenda can appeal to Southeners....once we can explain

Howdy! We'd like you tell ya that we care 'bout values too! Ain't that right?

:silly:

[QC]

13. You know, it's always good to see someone rise above lame, obvious

stereotypes. But it certainly didn't happen here. (And I will resist the temptation to suggest that we might increase our strength among California voters by nominating more B-movie musclemen with long histories of sexual predation. That would be impolite.)

[Democrat Dragon]

14. Why can't you take a joke

the "silly" smiley is there for a reason.

[American Tragedy]

11. Will they accept letters to the editor from people outside Virginia?

This letter is just begging for a response.

[No Exit]

12. In the here-and-now, 3 words: immigration, immigration, immigration

There is a huge opportunity to drive a nice wedge right into the repukelican party. In case you haven't noticed (and I'm sure people here HAVE noticed), Bush's amen corner (those fat, pasty "Christian" "working class" "family" types--the ones who don't MIND that the repukes are robbing them) are absolutely in a tizzy about too many Mexicans. On the other side, their fearless/brainless leader is just chugging along as usual (when did he ever give a shit about his constituents' views, ANYWAY?) with his plans to keep all the Mexican workers, legal and illegal, for his corporation friends to have cheap labor and cheap household help.

As we know, the south still has at its core the culture of the Scots-Irish. I'm not knocking that... some of my best friends, etc.... I'm just saying that these people are uneasy about all the Mexicans. These people have a culture which sprang from the culture of the British Isles, and there has been mutual dislike btw the English and the Spanish (yes, I know the Mexicans are not ONLY Spanish) for centuries. Hence, it is quite a big change to the average rural southerner, in the non-border, mid-south states such as Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, to suddenly find himself facing daily signs of Latino culture.

Little do these southerners know how much they would find in common with the (formerly) rural Mexican types who do the yard work... there is a lot of common ground, but there's a language barrier. There is really nothing to fear from the Mexicans, but SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS DON'T KNOW THAT AND WHY WOULD I TELL THEM? Instead, I'd rather see them get hysterically mad at their leader, Bush, over this issue. Heh heh heh. Okay, I guess I'm just mean. Whatever it takes to split the repukes!

[TheFarseer]

15. Finally other people are seeing this

There are really only a few repukes left that oppose illegal immigration. I strongly oppose illegal immigration and some other dems and a majority of independents and moderates not to mention most true conservatives are with me. There is huge potential to drive a huge wedge into the repubs over this one. Unfortunately, we can't be considered the alternative party on this issue. I'm not sure how many dems oppose illegals but I don't think it's over half.

[Kerrytravelers]

16. The only reason I don't oppose illegal immigration is because

with * in office 4 more years, I, too, may become an illegal immigrant to Canada. :cry:

[No Exit]

26. I hear ya! And for the first time, I, also, have thought of doing that n/t

[No Exit]

25. Speaking only of the (repukelican) constituents, and not

necessarily of their leaders (who can always be bought), actually, I think the real opposition is to immigration, period. That is, I think this frothing hysteria they have over "illegal immigration" is a mask for their real feelings. Their real feelings: they are against immigration, period--UNLESS a large group of English-speaking people from the British Isles happened to suddenly move here. THEN they would be thrilled, b/c they are slavish worshippers of all things English. What they don't like is that so many immigrants are not of the white race, and don't speak English. But they know there's no glory to be gained in simply coming out and screaming, "We don't want blacks and Indians and Asian types, we want more whites!" So they claim to be highly offended by the "illegality" of it all.

So, actually, IMO the democrats still have a chance to be the alternative party, to some extent, on this issue. No honest democrat constituent will oppose the immigration to the U.S. of any person based on that person's race or language. So I think the democrat constituents need to look those repukelican constituents in the face and tell them, "Admit it! It's their race and language you don't like--not any illegal status they might have". But b/f we do that, we need to first let them argue themselves into a split. Right now it's just fun to watch them get mad at Bush, as he draws in more Mexicans.

Bush's view is probably something like, "I need more chattel. I need more people who are uninformed and will do what we say w/o question. I have no real allegiance to any nation... we, The Carlyle Group, are international, and can go wherever we please... so what do I care if people in the south are upset that the culture there is changing?"

[Radical Activist]

17. Most people on welfare DO have jobs

People have opinions like this because most Democrats are too chickenshit to do something like defend welfare. We get what we deserve as a party.

[moondust]

18. That's easy.

Create a theocracy and reinstitute slavery.

[THUNDER HANDS]

19. bleh

Sorry, that was the sound of me vomiting all over this column.

Fucking idiot. Go play in the hay you dumb-ass hick.

[Cheswick2.0]

20. JHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ

Where are the jobs coming from? Where is the day care coming from? Where is the education coming from?

Why doesn't this person admit there is as much welfare in the rural south as anywhere else?

[IndianaGreen]

21. Accept Jesus and repent!

Of course, the GOP will still win the South no matter how far right the Democrats decide to go.

[Bridget Burke]

22. What if the Democrats went left?

What if they spoke up about "corporate welfare"? About why those jobs that came South decades ago have gone further South? (Of course, the jobs kept going; they're now in China & more Mexicans are coming North to work.)

And the South has always contributed sons (& daughters) to the military. Why are their children dying in a rich man's war?

Of course, these questions are dangerous. Democrats have corporate donors, as well.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Robert Kennedy Jr said the GOP was 95% corrupt and the Dems 75%

corrupt.

Of course, these questions are dangerous. Democrats have corporate donors, as well.

The only danger is in not asking those questions!

[DrGonzoLives]

24. This writer is no Democrat

S/he is simply the newspaper version of a troll.

[txaslftist]

27. The biggest welfare queens in Texas...

are on the cotton farms. Nearly half of the price per pound of cotton this year was paid for in government subsidies. The modern welfare queen homeschools her kids, goes to First Baptist and votes straight ticket Republican. She drives a pickup, not a cadillac, and she's doing just fine, thanks.

[txaslftist]

28. Seriously...to take the South

The democrats need to be about education, better roads, more equitable tax distribution and fairness.

Welfare to work is a nice 'button issue', just like 'no child left behind'. All these issues are is an excuse for hard-hearted people to vote the way they want to vote anyway.

[merh]

32. In big elections, like for president,

DON'T IGNORE the South! Ask for their votes, show that they are important. Campaign in every southern state and let them know that you want their votes.