The Republican's Southern Problem

Today's AJC editorial section had two entries of particular irritation.
First, Kofi Annan has the audacity to lecture Americans on "playing by the rules".
Second, Harold Myerson's democratic talking points inspired description of how the new south is a noose weighing heavily around Republican party's neck.
Within the editorial by Mr. Myerson, Rebuplicans are defined by these Southern characteristics:

• Knee-jerk miltaristic
• Anti-scientific
• Dogmatically religious
• Culturally phobic
• Sexually phobic
• Racially phobic

Mr. Harold, as he might be called in the South, may be described with these characteristics

• Knee-jerk chicken-hawk, strong belief if advocacy without fortitude of follow through
• Junk science advocate
• Agnostic, Atheist, or Secular, indicator of weakened family and moral values
• Culturally phobic, clearly lacks understanding of Southern culture
• Metro-sexual, probably unfair, sexual boundaries are changing everywhere
• Racially ignorant, segregation is a natural tendency, and prevalent in every region in one form or another.

Reference is made to a new book titled "Whistling Past Dixie: How the Democrats Can Win Without the South", this will soon be purchased and read.

It is true, there are large differences in regional perceptions of national politics. Mr. Myerson is suggesting that the Democrats won the last election because they were too much like the historical Southerner. This is incorrect, the Democrats won in 2006 because the war in Iraq and the political savy of the Democrats to hang that about the president's neck. Other factors include the failures of Senate and House to define themsleves as fiscally responsible, morally responsible, independent of presidential power.

By his own words from another editorial:

The meaning of the election was clear for all to see: The people plainly
believed that the unified, pluralistic Iraq that the Bush administration
insisted was growing stronger with each passing day actually had no future at
all.

Mr. Myerson ignores the realities that the southern region has vastly changed demographically. Florida will soon be the 3rd largest state in the union. Metropolitan areas are thrriving in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Miami, Nashville and Memphis. Many of us are not from here, reared in northeastern and midwestern regions. Transplants have come here by choice, lured by growing economies regional cutural differences. People are attracted to strong conservative communities.

I would suggest that as demographic shifting has taken place, upwardly mobile workers have moved south, leaving the stagnant remains. This stagnant remainder has shifted to liberal dogma rooted in northern machine political bases, unions and the welfare class. Yes, the new Southern value system may be closely aligned with those Republican, to compare those with the knee-jerk characteritics described is plain old-fashioned regional racism.