November 11, 2004
Another Reason to Fuck the South
By Byron LaMasters
Even in 2004, a majority of the people in Alabama are racists. Democrats just don't have much appeal to racists in the 21st century. Winning is not worth pandering to people that support segregation. And if we have to sacrifice much of the south for that, it's a principled choice worth making. I think the future Democratic majority will be formed by finding ways to appeal to Hispanics, and in adding the southwest to the Democratic coalition. I'm increasingly convinced that winning the south (at least most of the "southern" states) is hopeless in the near future if our party is to stand for the values that Democrats believe in.
Via Atrios.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at November 11, 2004 10:48 PM
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Amen.
Mississippi had a similar referendum in 2000 (or 2002 - I do not recall exactly) to delete (unenforceable) anti-miscegenation clauses from its State Constitution and it failed decisively. Given that Mississippi is 1/3 black, white voters must have overwhelmingly voted against sanity and for bigotry.
As a fourth generation Southerner, I say to hell with pandering to these racists. Shore up the upper midwest and target the Southwest. Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona are the keys to the White House.
It's not like there aren't plenty of racists elsewhere....
Yeah Jim, but are there any non-southern majority racist states?
Don't go too far on your criticism of Alabama's vote. I live in Alabama. Quite frankly, the amendment was worded in such a way that I doubt most people who voted knew what they were voting for or against. It was really not that well publicized and the proponents of the amendment didn't make much of a campaign to educate voters. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of racists in Alabama, but there was a lot of eeny meeny meiny moe going on.
It's all too easy to bash Alabama, isn't it? Why bother to actually read, say, an *Alabama* paper to figure out why the amendment failed?
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/109965018171430.xml?birminghamnews?nleg_elec
Colorado will be completely in the Dems hands after the 2006 midterms. This is a great opportunity to stress SOCIAL JUSTICE issues in the Southwest and remind Latinos that we are all struggling - but we don't have to.
WhoMe, the miscegenation provision in Mississippi's Constitution was repealed in 1987 by an amendment. I don't know what the percentages in the vote were.
You are probably thinking of, guess who?...Alabama. Alabama was the last state to finally purge the miscegantion provisions from its laws. That occurred in 2000. The voters approved an amendment (Amendment 2 on the ballot) to the Alabama Constitution (Amendment 667) that "annulled and set aside" the miscegenation provision. The amendment passed by a margin of 59.5% to 40.5%.
Prior to Alabama, South Carolina repealed its miscegenation laws just two years earlier in 1998. Their's passed 61.9% to 38.1%.
Neither is a very flattering margin given the fact that such laws were rendered unconstitutional by a 9-0 Supreme Court decision thrity-three and thirty-one years prior to these elections. Old bigotry dies hard. I expect we'll see the same resistence to the repeal of same-sex marriage bans when the Supreme Court finally gets around to the gay "Loving." (OK, bad pun you probably won't get unless you know the name of the aforementioned Supreme Court case.)
Craig,
I have not done the research on the internet, but I wouls bet the farm that there was some sort of refernedum in Mississippi in 2000 or 2002 concerning repealing some sort of Jim Crow concept from its Constitution ans it failing. I will try to look it up and repost.
Of course, I get the pun on Loving. After all, it is WhoMe, Esq.
