Category: The South

The Dubya Effect.

Democratic House candidate Stephanie Herseth wins in GOP-leaning South Dakota, and the Dems’ prospects in the South brighten. How much do you want to bet Karl Rove is pushing hard right now for a refocus on catching Osama before November?

The Charleston Choice.

With Iowa and New Hampshire seemingly for Dean, both the Doctor and his rivals continue to hone in on South Carolina as a make-or-break state. As I said earlier, SC is probably the last, best hope for a Clark, Edwards or Gephardt to establish themselves as the Southern anti-Dean. As for Lieberman and Kerry, barring a fantastic upset in New Hampshire, it seems to be all over for the both of them, as their increasingly scorched earth rhetoric attests.

The Limits of Segregation.

“All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches,” decried Strom Thurmond in 1948 as he led the Dixiecrat segregationists out of the Democratic Party. Of course, as always in the Souths Old and New, the bedroom was another matter. To no one in South Carolina’s real surprise, 78-year-old Essie Mae Washington-Williams announces she is Thurmond’s mixed-race daughter. True to the character and hypocrisy of the Jim Crow South, here is a man who broke the Democratic Party and the filibuster record of the United States Congress trying to deny basic civil rights to his own child. How’s that for “family values?” Unbelievable. Update: Surprise, surprise. The Thurmond family confirms it.

Dust, Discrimination, and Domestic Containment.

Some thanksgiving orals reading, for you and yours…read with lavish amounts of stuffing and cranberry sauce.

Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era.
C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow.
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s.

Old South Pandering.

A week after sidestepping Sharpton’s anti-black attack (one that could have been directed at many of the major candidates), Howard Dean stumbles into a Confederate controversy. I’ve already written about my thoughts on this snafu at length over at Value Judgment, but to summarize: Somebody needs to tell Dean, if he doesn’t know himself, that (a) the Stars-‘n’-Bars is not a symbol to be thrown around lightly, and (b) most Southerners (and even the truck-drivers) do not endorse the flag or the racist sentiments that brought it back into Southern life (and the ones who do aren’t going to like Dean anyway.) Dean’s still in the lead for my vote, but, frankly, this is just dunderheaded, if not offensive, in its ignorance of both the South and the racial politics surrounding the flag.

From Pelennor to Petersburg.

Members of the fanboy press see 20 minutes of RotK, and they sound superb (Spoilers here about how certain scenes play out.) Meanwhile, the trailer for Cold Mountain, that other major Oscar-contending peak (besides Mt. Doom), is now online. I’m all for Civil War tales, but ah have to staht a-wunnderin’ about Jude and Miss Nicole’s accents after watching this.

Leap of Faith.

In a decision that may prove costly for Congressional Dems in 2004, John Edwards cancels his Senate bid to focus full-time on running for President. (I’d say Erskine Bowles is a strong back-up candidate – still, Dems are rarely an easy sell in North Carolina). I presume Edwards is making this move to gather some momentum and try to stake out the “Son of the South” slot in the top tier before Clark shows up to steal his mojo. As I’ve noted before, Edwards plays the populism angle very well, but he’s going to have a seriously uphill battle should the General join the fight. And at the moment he’s got ground to make up in my mind for his defense of the Patriot Act.