I thought that it may be useful to explain where I am coming from when I suggest that the Democrats should play the Republican’s game of moral indignation. It may be the foundation for a Southern Strategy for the Democratic Party. Lord knows we need one.
Unfortunately for our country, reasonableness and rationality does not win elections. We had the candidate that had plans and propositions that were grounded in reality. We lost to a pussy-grabbin’ man, supported by the evangelicals, who says all Mexicans are rapists. For decades, starting with Bush Sr’s characterization of Liberalism as the “L-Word”, we have been painted as evil, as trying to destroy our country. Even when Republican policy destroyed our economy in 2008 and Obama, like many Democrats before him, was rescuing our country from economic calamity, it was us that was characterized as evil.
I am tired of my Southern neighbors’ dogmatic support for the Republican party. While my neighbors vote to “take our country back” from the Democrats, my region-the “Christian” South-continuously has the highest crime rates, pregnancy rates, drug abuse rates, incarceration rates, STDs and the worst healthcare, education, and infrastructure in the nation.
So, how can I tell my neighbors that they are responsible for the evils that befall our nation and our region? Maybe it is time to break our of our rational bubble and paint them with the same brush that they paint us. They have no compunction when it comes to calling us evil. Why should we?
Thank you for reading.