Honky Tonk Style

Clay Risen’s TNR review of Foxes in the Henhouse is great. He kneecaps the strategy-not-policy thesis with a single, swift paragraph:

Thus Saunders's strategy would leave Democrats even worse off than before: A populist message delivered through patronizing Southern stereotypes would turn off many otherwise moderate middle-class whites; anger the Democrats' black base; and probably be ignored by working-class whites--the very people it is supposed to attract.

And his introduction to author Dave Saunders is priceless:

At first glance, Saunders seems a good candidate to play tour guide to the mysterious South. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia, he lived a hard-scrabble life, at least until he hit it rich in real estate. He hunts. He swears. His nickname is "Mudcat." In a knife fight, you roll with the guy nicknamed "Killer"; in the South, you roll with the guy nicknamed "Mudcat," right?

As someone who's been privy to far more discussions of a mysterious practice called "muddin" than anyone without two first names should ever be forced to hear, I can definitely sound off in the affirmative.

Risen is correct, of course, in everything he says in the article. Speaking from my own 20ish year tenure in the South, a cultural approach won’t work. It’s impossible to fake Southern. Oh sure, you can haul out the country music and attend all the NASCAR races you want, but any real Southerner will just point and laugh, even if they like you. Southern culture knows its own.

I moved to North Carolina before starting elementary school, but even still, I always stood out. Oh sure, I eventually found my way in the thick smoke of Southern culture, but I could never quite pass. It was like having a green card: acceptance, but not citizenry. Maybe if I had gone muddin', just once.

Risen’s also right that environment and education are places where Democrats can make big gains in the South. No one wants to destroy nature, and Democrat-style regulations are unfortunately seen as the only real solution to combat environmental decay. Education, too is a big deal, and, at the risk of losing some free-market cred, this is one area where the right could stand to throw a ton of money at the problem. As long as we’re in a system where public schooling is the norm, we better make sure that schools have enough money to buy supplies, care for facilities and, most important, pay good teachers. I have yet to figure out how we’re supposed to improve the quality of public instruction in this country when teachers are paid like fast-food chain employees.

If Risen’s essay has a flaw, it’s in claiming that the South has no culture. It’s true: the culture is more diffuse than it used to be, and urban centers are picking up on characteristics of their northern counterparts. But the South has a culture, of sorts, one that is distinctly different from the rest of the country. Influenced strongly by the church (even amongst non-believers), displaying a general apathy toward intellectualism, and beholden to a weird combination of manners and raunchiness, the South isn’t a single, united cultural entity, but it has clear lines of dissention from the North. Unfortunately, those differences aren’t going to help the Democrats pick up any seats, no matter how many guys named Mudcat you roll with.