Monday, November 17, 2008
What does it mean to be a Southerner?
Posted by Mary C. Curtis on Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Award-winning former Charlotte Observer columnist Mary C. Curtis will be serving as a guest blogger this week on The CLog. Be sure to come back every day to check out her unique take on local, national and international current events and more
What does it mean to be a Southerner?
It’s a question that has been asked and answered endlessly. Since the 1960s, the political meaning -- especially when the politics is presidential -- has been specific, spawning its own name, the “Southern strategy.”
After the Democratic Party’s association with civil rights legislation, the GOP was a welcome haven for the disgruntled. With a few exceptions -- in North Carolina, for example, when Southerner Jimmy Carter headed the Democratic ticket -- the region fell in line. Even the presence of John Edwards as the 2004 vice presidential candidate didn’t help.
The South was usually on the winning side in this uncivil war, as the country tilted its way. But in 2008, N.C. and its neighbor Virginia voted for President-elect Barack Obama.
According to David Bositis, both states “have seceded,” become Middle Atlantic States. Fighting words, perhaps, from the senior research associate of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, based in Washington, D.C. He spoke with the Trotter Group of black columnists in Washington last week. The reasons, Bositis said, include “in-migration and education.”
It’s true that nationally and in N.C., if it were up to whites alone, John McCain and Sarah Palin would be celebrating right now. White voters chose the Republican ticket by a 55- to 43-percent margin nationally. But time and demographics are working against the party.
In just four Southern states -- Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee -- Obama got fewer white votes than wind-surfing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Bositis said these Deep South states keep resisting.
North Carolina and Virginia?
They are “no longer officially part of the South,” said Bositis. They are “going to have their Stars and Bars ripped down,” he said. But 2008 is just one election, held in an economic meltdown presided over by an unpopular president. Even N.C. newcomers would be reluctant to obliterate the Mason-Dixon Line and all it represents.
Will the South rise again, this time as a region with a new face and a new identity? And how will North Carolina fit in?
Comments (5)
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YankeeBoy Bositis is full of crap. Old times in NC and Va are not forgotten - no matter what politically correct garbage YankeeBoy spews. Given the magical chance, I bet the majority of NC citizens would gladly saw off Charlotte and the Triangle and let it drift away to New York or Vermont, as the northernmost suburbs of Va as well had Va the choice. Poor little YankeeBoy don't even know the correct name for the flag he attacks - some expert!
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Mary, A LOT of my friends and family (we're white) are just THRILLED that Obama is our new President!!! I sported a yard sign and still have my bumper sticker; my friend and I stood in the rain to see him Nov. 3rd. Every time I hear him and Michelle speak, I'm even more thrilled; he will be GREAT!
Tarheel voters were duped into electing John "Love Child instead of sick wife" Edwards. Ditto Old Dominion electors picking Leftists Doug Wilder and Tim "Virginia is Dead" Kaine. Now we have chosen the messiah lord Obama. This proves a few dollars can sway a few voters. Meanwhile we still are waiting to see his REAL birth certificate prior to the meeting of the Electorial College
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