Obama and the crackers

MANIFESTO

Related somewhat to the last post, Colin McEnroe pretty much raises the pivotal question that Southern white (and, let's face it, the voting bloc Mr. McEnroe is referring to is largely male) voters will answer in November:

"Could I stand to vote for a Negro even for the purposes of avoiding eight more years of ruinous economic policy and the use of my sons in poorly thought-out Middle East adventurism?"

I've talked about this issue before, but this is the one truism about American politics that almost no one is willing to discuss—or even broach.

If one looks at election maps from any era after the Civil War through 1960, one sees what used to be referred to as the "Solid South." That is, southern states from Florida to Texas voted Democratic; they absolutely refused to vote for the party of Abraham Lincoln, who'd freed the slaves. Starting with the campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and especially with Reagan and the Bushes (The Willie Horton campaign of Bush XLI marked one of those times I was ashamed to carry the same passport as a man running for president.), it's been clear whom the Republicans are pandering to. That is, southern states from Florida to Texas are now voting Republican; they absolutely refuse to vote for the party of Lyndon Johnson, who brought about a number of Civil Rights Acts.

And so, Colin McEnroe is correct. It remains to be seen whether Republican voters will allow their—ahem—parochialism to override ridding the country of the destructive domestic and foreign policies of Republican politicians.