You know if we could get these Backwoods boys to go Blue we

[vetwife]

could take Georgia. We could. The whole race is being concentrated in the urban areas, but the real power is in the rural areas. I wish some heavy hitters would come on out and sit down with the country folks. make some homemade icecream, spin a few Hank williams toons, and let them see that they are the party for people like them. Not George Bush. We could at least turn it into battleground. We need some real communication to assure these folks nobody wants to take their guns, that our folks are christians and other faiths and not the devils they seem to think. Remember these folks don't get out much. They just believe what they hear on Fox.
They don't really read but they all vote.

[Gildor Inglorion]

1. It will never happen...NEVER....

the Mississippi plague has spread to Georgia: the equation of the Democratic Party with African-Americans. Virulent racism will compel the rednecks and hillbillies of rural Georgia to vote contrary to their own best interests every time. Thank heaven my mother and my grandfather didn't live to see what's become of Georgia.

[ulysses]

2. "our folks are christians and other faiths"

Most of my wife's family lives outside the city, and that "other faiths" is as much a problem for them as outright atheism.

Actually, if they provide any kind of measure, I don't see the rural south - even the folks who would most benefit from economic populism, even if the party embraced it - coming to the blue this year short of the Dems abandoning all semblance of support for racial and cultural minorities. And probably not even then.

Eventually, yes, and we have to start now, but I wouldn't expect fruit from that tree for a while yet.

[Mallifica]

3. don't ya think . . .

that it's somewhat small-minded to lump all of the people that live in rural areas into a group that could be persuaded by home-made icecream and a few Hank Williams tunes? Although I don't think that many will be coming to the blue this year, assuming that they're all simple-minded fundamentalists will not win any votes.

[ulysses]

4. not sure if you meant to reply to me

as I don't think I was lumping rural folks into said category. Neither do I think that they're all "simple-minded fundamentalists", but there is a fairly strong tradition among many of not-exactly-complex political thought and distrust of anything out of the "norm", at least from what I've seen here in 13 years.

[vetwife]

5. Nope ..I am 5 generations from here...I know these folks..Trust me !

My great great great grandfather settled Douglasville, Ga. He was a Vansant. I was born here, raised here and have lived here most of my life. My Father was a pastor here for over 25 years and I really know these folks. The majority of the natives have not traveled out of the south at all, are spoon fed from the pulpit and love their guns, and predjudices because it is handed down from generation to generation. I traveled a great deal in the 80's and 90's. I also was fortunate enough to have some college and I know so many of the folks in the rural south and the majority are very narrow minded. Most have not gotten over the Civil War. I speak not as a northerner but a REAL native of rural Georgia. A liberal and that is rare and we are definately in the minority. The wife of a combat VN vet and activists. No , I understood what Howard Dean meant about reaching out to those folks with the confederate flag and pick up trucks. I really understood. I am a white female married to a native american and a emember of the NAACP, ACLU, and founder of aveterans organization..I do know these people... Look at Zell. Perfect example.

[vetwife]

7. I think they are anti union and just plain ignorant ........

I have tried for years and years to talk reason to these backwoods hillbillies. I don't know. I just threw them away because their narrow mindness, I just could not tolerate any longer.

[jukes]

6. i perceive

a distinct prejudice against the democrats as a "union" party, also, which many georgian natives equate w/communist agitators.

our best efforts in the rural south is to volunteer as drivers & poll watchers to assist afro americans and other segregated groups access to the polls, imho.

[vetwife]

8. You are right about the African American folks ..making sure

they are not disenfranchised and we get out the vote..forget the hillbillies. I wish it would change..they would changed but they won't.