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You'll probably fail if you simply fight for the Democratic Party in the South.
But if you fight for democracy in the South, which is what @staceyabrams did, you'll change America. https://twitter.com/mrickanderson/status/1337643064752541698
But if you fight for democracy in the South, which is what @staceyabrams did, you'll change America. https://twitter.com/mrickanderson/status/1337643064752541698
If you overcome race-centric disenfranchisement in the South with democracy, it really would change it all.
Even the GOP would have to change or die. Since the 60s, the GOP has relied heavily on the Southern Strategy—appealing to white racism. Without the South, it doesn't work.
Even the GOP would have to change or die. Since the 60s, the GOP has relied heavily on the Southern Strategy—appealing to white racism. Without the South, it doesn't work.
If the GOP suddenly had to listen to the needs of Black southerners and other southerners of color in order to have a chance at winning the South (and thus the electoral college), neither the Southern strategy nor Trumpism would work any longer.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party establishment would become much more responsive to the needs of Black Southerners and poor southerners generally.
It wouldn't take a mass protest movement for national Democrats to confront issues that Black southerners have long dealt with.
It wouldn't take a mass protest movement for national Democrats to confront issues that Black southerners have long dealt with.
But if true southern democracy changed both the GOP & Dems, who knows what kind of political landscape we'd see nationally. We'd have two parties taking voters of color seriously.
Not the Party of Lincoln vs. Dixiecrats. Not the Party of Obama vs. Trumpists.
Not the Party of Lincoln vs. Dixiecrats. Not the Party of Obama vs. Trumpists.
A solid purple South would mean two parties, nationally, competing for the support of people of color on *policies*—not prejudice and dogwhistles and demagoguery.
And any party that refused to adjust to that reality would be, electorally, replaced.
And any party that refused to adjust to that reality would be, electorally, replaced.
A better America and a better politics runs through the South. Create a true democracy here and you create an American that is truer to the ideals we have long claimed but never lived up to.
*A better America and a better politics runs through the South. Create a true democracy here and you create an American that is truer to the ideals we have long claimed but never lived up to.
