Poll: Southerners Starting to 'Get It' (Now it's Dems over Repubs)

[Hissyspit]

Sabra posted this Elon University poll earlier in LBN, but it didn't make it to the Greatest Page and I think it should be there for all to see. BURIED in the article was this statistical nugget:

Of those polled 46 percent said they voted Republican in the 2004 presidential election, while 42 percent said they voted Democratic. When asked which party they will support htis year, 33 percent said Democrats and 27 percent said Republicans.

What jumps out at you here is the difference in drop-off for Democrats and Republicans," Bacot said, adding that Bush's unpoularity could prove a drag on Republican incumbents who won with 55 percent or less of the vote in 2004.

Here is Sabra's original link from late Friday/early Saturday: http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4581640

MORE:

In the survey, 52 percent of respondents siad they disapproved or strongly disapproved of Bush's job performance, compared to 43 percent who said they approved or strongly approved.
Asked whether the war with Iraq ws worth fighting, a slim majority - 51 percent - said no, while 44 percent said yes.

Elon is a great Southern college (only recently a university).

[Behind the Aegis]

1. NC was a squeaker last time.

I was following this guy's data, and ex-pat in The Netherlands, and NC was always flip-flopping. One station here called NC "blue," for about an hour, then it changed. NC is a very odd southern state.

[Hissyspit]

2. Yes, it is, as we were discussing last night.

Great universities, long-standing old-Southern Democrat tradition at the local level. But we couldn't ever get rid of Jesse Helms' leech-like grip on power.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Ol' Jesse...

...that always stymied me. I guess it was a "cult of personality" thing. Of course, I will be back there in May. I haven't been back there in almost two years. It is a state of history and contradiction. :)

[FreedomAngel82]

26. I'm an orginial NC girl myself

I was born there and lived there till 1987 (I was about four/five when we moved to Tn) and the city has changed since I've lived there. I thought it mighty strange how they had Senator Edwards but yet NC was hardly blue. :shrug: Wasn't there some fraud there?

[wildeyed]

28. Edwards ran against the pig farmer.

I forget his name, but he was odious. Edwards was so smart and pretty in comparison, it was hard to say no. As I recall, Edwards only won by a hair anyway.

[ms liberty]

30. Lauch Faircloth wasn't it? n/t

[Hissyspit]

38. Yeah, we finally got rid of him. I met him once.

Vastly underqualified.

[Syrinx]

3. I'm a Southerner who gets it

I always thought Bush was bad for America.

But I fell for it for about a week after 9/11.

I remember saying "Aren't they going to do something about it?" Meaning I wanted the government to bomb the hell out of Afghanistan. I admit I had those thoughts.

But I was wrong, and I got over it fairly quickly.

I'm firmly convinced now that our own leaders perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.

But even if you can't convince yourself of that, there are plenty of examples of criminality exhibited by the administration that should put them in prison for many, many years. Examples that are well documented, but that are tucked away somewhere out of the national spotlight.

I've never been a right-winger, ever! I've always hated Reagan and Bush Sr. I've always hated the reverse Robin Hood nature of the jerks on the right. Steal from the poor to give to the rich. I always hated that shit.

But we've reached a new level of audaciousness. These murdering, lying, stealing freaks need to be arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned. For as long as their crimes reverberate across our lives.

They are evil, and maybe my fellow Southerners are finally waking up to this incontrovertible fact.

Else, we are all doomed for more gloom, and the American experiment in democracy is destined for the scrap-bin of history, and no-one will know our name.

[Fovea]

37. I know that the South took a hit

under Clinton with the tobacco judgement, and the textile industry losing to globalization, but I don't think that was as bad compared to Katrina and the new Bush budget.

Dubya's buddies destroyed the IT economy to replace it with a military/oil economy. To do that he had to destroy the economic sections that support the working class. We all have to do more than take down PNAC. We have to take down the industries that make PNAC necessary.


I wish the whole US would wake up tomorrow with one burnning idea. We have to nationalize our energy industries. Otherwise they, not the governement write the policies.

[Selatius]

5. A little slow, no? SIX years too slow.

The damage has already been done, and this country is hemorrhaging to death. These budget deficits will outlive the rest of this decade. We will likely not pay down the crushing national debt in our lifetimes, and we will likely not reverse the national trade deficit. At this rate, the US will be reduced to an impoverished, bankrupt ex-superpower by the 2040s. Because the US will face monetary issues as well as societal issues that are driving the different regions of the US further apart, I feel the US will no longer exist as a single nation if things do not change.

I live in Mississippi. I see it firsthand. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the nation, and we've got an education system that wouldn't pass any test in any industrialized nation outside the US with health care programs that are suffering deep cuts and poor maintenance, yet these problems have been with Mississippi for a long time before Bush, and they keep voting to attack their own economic well-being. They haven't gotten the message at all since the end of the Civil War.

...And authoritarian China will inherit the position of world's most powerful nation.

Just look at what Mississippi voted for twice:



This is absolute insanity.

[quaoar]

16. I lived in Mississippi in the early 80s

when William Winter was governor and Mississippi was the only state left that did not have mandatory state-funded kindergarten. Winter rammed it through the Legislature by a single vote and the Clarion-Ledger's campaign in support of it won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Public Service.

So, as bad as things are these days, I know there is hope.

[ChristianLibrul]

6. "starting" to get it?

Many of us southerners always knew Chimpy was dangerous. We were just outnumbered by dumbasses like the poor Baptists. If they'll believe Chimpy is born-again, they'll believe in unicorns.

[Hissyspit]

7. I'm in the South, too!

I should have said "MORE Southerners 'Get It,' but there wasn't enough room in the subject line and the editing period just ended.

Welcome to DU, by the way!

:toast:

:patriot:

[vi5]

8. Yeah, just wait until they get distracted with a shiny object...

..and no, before southerners get all in a snit I'm talking about repubs/bush voters everywhere not "all southerners".

Yeah, some of them are starting to "get it" and become disgruntled with Bush. But just like in the rest of the country, this doesn't mean shit. All these idiots are going to do is say "Well, I'm a conservative and a republican but Bush isn't a good conservative or a good republican. Now (insert McCain/Frist/Santorum/whoever)....THERE'S a real republican."

Completely ignoring the entire republican party sucking up to Bush and completely ignoring the fact that the entire republican machine is corrupt, and completely ignoring that for 6-8 years they acted like Bush was the second coming of Reagan.

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Too, Too True!

Down here on Buckaroo Bush's home turf, the local Republicans still act like Buckaroo Bush walks on water. His successor as Governor is even more incompetent and looks to be re-elected thanks to the Texas Democratic Party's continuing disarray. I don't think that people here in the Lone Star State are going to wise up until enough people hit rock-bottom. We still have a ways to go yet--we still have functional public schools and the roads haven't fallen apart yer. In the meantime, out here in west Dixie, we'll still be hearing "conservative" blather for a good while yet.

Thanks to right-wing sugar daddys like James Leininger and Bob Parry, it looks like the Texas Republican Party is likely to shift even further to the right. I suspect that the destruction of public education is next on the Republican agenda.

[FreedomAngel82]

27. Than it's up to us to remind them

And there are plenty ways to do that. Look at Frist and the port ordeal. He's sucking up Bush's ass with that.

[patricia92243]

10. NC is not "Southern" anymore. At a staff meeting at my work, I was

the ONLY Southener there - out of about 20 people. This was several years ago, and it is even more "Yankee" than it used to be. That is the big reason that we are more open minded than we used to be.

[marions ghost]

24. MANY of those yankees who go south

--from yuppies to retirees--vote Republican however. To protect their assets.

So I don't agree that this is the reason Southerners are more open-minded.

[wildeyed]

29. It is true that the demographics are changing,

but a lot of the northerners who move to my area are *really* conservative whack jobs. 'Course you got me an my husband, too, so that makes up for them a little ;)

[GOPFighter]

11. Wait til the baby boomers from blue states start retiring to the South

I work for the federal government just outside Washington, DC, and a lot of my coworkers are getting ready to retire and move to the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. It's starting as a trickle but it will reach tidal wave proportions in 5-10 years. No doubt this will moderate the vote in years to come (and provide some relief for the liberals who have been courageously fighting the wingnuts in the South).

[Vogon_Glory]

13. Idaho, On The Other Hand...

On the other hand, Idaho was once a Democratic state until the mines shut down and the state started drawing retirees from California.

I do hope you're right, though.

[QC]

17. Most of the "snowbird" retirees here in northwest Florida

seem to be freepers. I keep hearing that an imagined influx of sophisticated, enlightened Northerners is going to improve us poor, dumb rubes, but it sure hasn't happened that way so far. All I have seen them accomplish is to price the locals out of housing and encourage the construction of yet more ugly highrises on what little remains of the beach.

[RagingInMiami]

22. But our snowbirds, the ones in South Florida, are liberal

So you would think they would cancel each other out.

[panzerfaust]

12. Die Deutschen erhielten es auch

… im Jahr 1945. Eine Spitze zu spät.

The Germans got it too, in 1945. A bit too late.

[Clark2008]

14. OK - cool, but what about the mid-West which is more red than the South?

Seriously, I see "Southern" bashing on this board all the time, but the South has a lot more purple states than the mid-west, which is so red, it looks like blood on those red/blue/purple maps. I think, personally, a lot of this perception that the South is more red is the misconceived notion that the South is somehow STILL, after 140 years, more racist than the rest of the country, which also is not true.

I'm just making a point, Hissy. I actually loved the data you posted, but I had to solidify the fact that the South has always been more likely to swing Dem than the mid-West. ;)

[QC]

18. How thoughtful of someone to come along and provide evidence

for what you say about mindless, ignorant bashing in the post immediately after yours.

[vi5]

19. Here's a northerner's perception of it....

I personally don't think that taken as a whole population the south is more racist than the north. I do however think that the racism takes much different forms than it does in the north. I think what racism there is in the south seems to be more vehement than in the north, as does the "anti-racism" if you can call it such a thing. I think the net effect seems to be that less northerners are open about their racism or thei bigotry but it is still spread out more subtly in a larger swath of the northern population. Up here nobody feels compelled to over compensate in either direction because it's more hidden and more subtly ingrained.

In the south I think the non-racist population has taken to vehemently being anti-racist as almost an obligation to overcompensate for the perception that everyone has of them. While the racist portion of the population seems more virulently racist almost out of a stubbornness in reaction to the perceptions that everyone has. I can't say whether the net effect is that one section is actually more racist than anywhere else. I just think it's taken on different forms. I know more people from the south who are not racist who are more vehemently anti racist than their northern equivalents.

I say this as a northerner so I could be completely off base about this but that seems to be my perception.

[Clark2008]

42. Oh - there's that down here, but what there also is

is openness.

The South has very publically dealt with her racism and, as a result, continues to be branded as racist on whole. What that has done, in real terms, is actually made us more aware, which may seem to make us hyper sensitive to the issue, as you describe.

Also, and this is a point less common, we actually have large numbers of mixed areas here - there simply are more black people spread out throughout the South than in the North. Integration breeds familiarity so, we have both the very racist and the very anti-racist as a result and as you describe.

[KyuzoGator]

15. It has only taken 150 years, but the South is starting to "get it"!

Come on, we know that the learning curve for the South has always been arduous.

[Hissyspit]

20. kick

[calimary]

21. Done, Hissysplit! Fifth vote! Get thee to the Greatest page!

:hi:

And YES, many many others should see this. It's good stuff. Every last ounce of info (and testimony) like this will increase our chances in November in the House AND dare I say the Senate, too. If nothing else, it'll make it a LOT harder for the bad guys to steal. I seriously doubt they'll try ANYTHING that gets people started looking into vote counts. They'll pick races that are close, so nobody much notices something like a gamed system. This increasingly lopsided stuff will make that a WHOLE LOT harder.


:headbang:

[wryter2000]

23. Don't know what state that is

I have a friend in Mobile, AL who says everyone is pissed about Katrina and other things. The South will be no walk in the park for Repugs this year.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. As a southern girl I'm so happy about this poll!

I do wish Lyndon Johnson was a live to see that! Hopefully wherever his spirit is he's looking down smiling. :) This is good news and what's good about this poll is it's based on people going to vote too! The other polls you have no way of knowing if the people are going to go out and vote or not. So we do have a chance of taking back the government since not every where has voting machines and places like Florida and North Carolina are getting rid of them which is good news!

[ms liberty]

31. Thanks for posting this, missed this from earlier...

There are a lot of misconceptions about the South, and being completely Southern I'll admit sometimes I feel a bit defensive about it. I am in the mouth of the lion, so to speak; I'm a very liberal Democrat in a very rural county in the foothills.
I've noticed that some posts above have pointed out that most of the South is actually NOT as red as it is stereotyped to be, and they would be correct. However I'd like to add that the South is not one homogeneous region. Every state in the South has a different history as a Southern state. Georgia has a very different history and regional culture than North Carolina. Maybe people think of us as some kind of "bloc" because of the Civil War, but they could only think that if they don't know our history, meaning something like understanding the history of each of the southern states in comparison with the others.

Just like our accents, we're different from area to area; state to state. We're both much better and much worse than our stereotype.

[Krist]

32. Yeee haw !

The south will rise again !

[buddysmellgood]

33. Maybe, just maybe we'll get enough votes that the right's theft of the

election won't be ignored.

[Hissyspit]

34. That's what I've been thinking lately. Therein lies the rub.

If they steal California, it would seem especially egregious.

[buddysmellgood]

35. Will people sit still? That's what I wonder. Will we allow it to happen?

So few vote. I see these game shows or skits on Leno where they ask simple questions of people on the street. They have no trouble finding people who can't tie their shoes or answer basic questions about anything. I've felt for some time now, that the only way things will get better, is if they get much worse first.

[fearnobush]

36. Polls look great, but for the rethugs, Diebold and their vote stealing

apparatus look even better. We can't win elections unless they are indisputable landslides. Diebold ESS Sequoia win folks unless our Dem leaders confront this insanity.

[Hissyspit]

39. As I said, therein lies the rub. n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

40. The republicans knew they were losing the south, that's why they pushed

so hard for electronic machines to be installed before 2006 in most states.

Yes, they were even concerned about Texas. Each county here was given money to implement the change to e-voting.

I don't expect to see any states in the south turn anytime soon if we're voting on these machines. We'll continue to see numbers similar to 2004 being reported and very few people will give it a second look.

[msgadget]

41. Did Pelosi read this, I wonder? n/t