I’m afraid I have to add a modest qualifier to Ralph Luker’s contention (below) “that no Democrat has ever been elected president of the United States without being competitive in the South, i.e., without carrying at least five Southern states.” Bill Clinton, might have said, “It all depends on what your definition of ‘southern’ is,” I suppose. If you count Kentucky, ol’Bubba himself sure enough carried five southern states in both ’92 and ’96 but I think it is important to note that he didn’t need any of them to win. In fact, between 1968 (when Nixon actually needed only one southern state) and 2000, the only winner who really required southern votes to be elected was Jimmy Carter.

On their way to blaming the South for the whole country’s shift to the right, liberal pundits have overlooked the fact that when the Republicans swept the South in the 1980s, they swept the nation as well. What may have begun as their “southern strategy” turned out to be a pretty nifty national strategy as well. In my perhaps-not-humble-enough- opinion, the “Republicanus Interruptus” of the Clinton era was no more the result of Clinton’s ability to convince some southern whites that he was more conservative than his Yankee colleagues than of his success in persuading some northern white voters of the same thing. Needless to say, I certainly agree with Ralph that the Republicans can continue to win in national elections without the South until the cows come home. They won’t have to, of course, so long as the Demos continue to impose a comprehensive ideological litmus test on prospective supporters. Remember the eruption of blue-state outrage when Howard Dean suggested that his party actually needed the support of folks who sport Confederate flag decals on their pickups? More recently, as Ralph points out,
Kevin Drum agonizes over this issue as well:

“Most of the time I think that of course we need to contest the South: it's just too big to cede without a fight. But then I begin to think about abortion. And gay rights. And separation of church and state. And racial equality. And labor rights.
And I just give up. Given the way the majority of southerners think about this stuff, how can we win regularly in the South without completely selling our souls?”

There’s a formula for political victory if I’ve ever heard it: “Let’s focus on where we disagree.” My recipe for the Democrats in the South may not be any better, but I believe there is real traction on the issue of the working poor, who abound in all colors throughout the South. Continued Republican opposition to raising the minimum wage is both unconscionable and impossible to dodge. This is not about welfare or even unemployment assistance. It’s about people who are clearly doing their best to provide for themselves and their families and simply can’t do it on wages that are totally out of line with their productivity and the profits it generates. The race issue has been manipulated throughout southern history to thwart the politics of economic interest, and the Republicans may well trot out that tactic again, and it may work again. Even so, focusing on the plight of the working poor would at least give the Democrats a chance to be Democrats again while appealing to a constituency they clearly need and one that just as clearly needs them.