Synopses & Reviews
Two generations ago Kevin Phillips challenged Republicans to envision a southern-based national majority. In Whistling Past Dixie, Tom Schaller issues an equally transformative challenge to Democrats: Build a winning coalition outside the South.
The South is no longer the swing region in American politics -- it has swung to the Republicans. Most of the South is beyond the Democrats' reach, and what remains is moving steadily into the Republican column. The twin effects of race and religion produce a socially conservative, electorally hostile environment for most Democratic candidates. What's wrong with Kansas is even more wrong in the South, where cultural issues matter most to voters.
Yet far too many politicians and pundits still subscribe to the idea that Democrats must recapture the South. This southern nostalgia goes beyond sentimentality: It is a dangerously self-destructive form of political myopia which, uncorrected, will only relegate the Democrats to minority-party status for a generation. The notion that Democrats should pin their hopes for revival on the tail of a southern donkey is no less absurd than witnessing the children's variant of the party game, for both involve desperate attempts to hit elusive targets while wandering around blindfolded.
Meanwhile, political attitudes and demographic changes in other parts of the country are more favorable to Democratic messages and messengers. The Midwest and Southwest are the nation's most competitive regions. There are opportunities to expand Democratic margins in the Mountain red states while consolidating control over the reliably blue northeastern and Pacific coast states. Before dreaming of fortynine-statepresidential landslides like those of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the Democrats ought to first figure out how to win twenty-nine states. And that means capturing Arizona -- or even Alaska -- before targeting Alabama.
Republicans cannot win without the South, Schaller argues, but they also can't win with the South alone. Much as Democrats were confined to the South for decades prior to the New Deal, the Democrats should South but little else. After winning and governing successfully elsewhere, Democrats can then present their record of achievement to the South -- the nation's most conservative region, but one that is steadily assimilating with the politics of the rest of America and, therefore, will become more competitive in the future.
But for now, Democrats must put strategy ahead of sentimentality. To form a new and enduring majority coalition, they must whistle past their electoral graveyard. They must whistle past Dixie.
Review
"The best analysis to date of how the Democrats may be able to take advantage." - Kevin Phillips, author of andlt;iandgt;The Emerging Republican Majorityandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;American Theocracyandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Thank goodness for andlt;iandgt;Whistling Past Dixieandlt;/iandgt; by Tom Schaller. His perceptive blueprint for de-Southernizing our politics couldn't come at a better time." - Thomas Frank, author of andlt;iandgt;What's the Matter with Kansasandlt;/iandgt;?
Review
"The one strategist who fundamentally predicted the new geography of partisan American politics is Tom Schaller, a University of Maryland political scientist whose book andlt;iandgt;Whistling Past Dixieandlt;/iandgt; appeared several months before November's elections." - Harold Meyerson, andlt;iandgt;The Washington Post andlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Timely.... Schaller and his fellow advocates of a Rocky Mountain strategy are persuasive....There can be no denying that the demographic transformation has opened large parts of the West to political change." - E. J. Dionne, andlt;iandgt;The American Prospectandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Schaller's...overall argument stands up pretty well after the 2006 elections. The Democrats gained less in the South than elsewhere last fall, and where they did gain it was usually in border states, via notably conservative candidates who did not win by much." - Nicholas Lemann, andlt;iandgt;The New Republicandlt;/iandgt;
Review
"Now that Dixie politicians and George W. Bush have remade the national GOP in their own image -- messianic adventurism in the Middle East, Texas-style corruption, bungled oil strategy, and fealty to radical religion -- the new Republican South is turning into a symbol of party parochialism and excess. Tom Schaller's Whistling Past Dixie is the best analysis to date of how the Democrats may be able to take advantage." -- Kevin Phillips, author of American Theocracy
Synopsis
Two generations ago Kevin Phillips challenged Republicans to envision a southern-based national majority. In andlt;iandgt;Whistling Past Dixieandlt;/iandgt;, Tom Schaller issues an equally transformative challenge to Democrats: Build a winning coalition outside the South.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Thomas F. Schallerandlt;/bandgt; is associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and coauthor of andlt;Iandgt;Devolution and Black State Legislatorsandlt;/iandgt;. A columnist for andlt;Iandgt;The Washington Examinerandlt;/iandgt;, Schaller has written for andlt;Iandgt;The American Prospect, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globeandlt;/iandgt;, the andlt;Iandgt;Los Angeles Times, Salonandlt;/iandgt;, and andlt;Iandgt;The Washington Postandlt;/iandgt;, and has appeared on National Public Radio and C-SPAN television. He lives in Washington, DC.
Table of Contents
Contents
1 Partisan Graveyard
2 The Southern Transformation
3 Blacklash and the Heavenly Chorus
4 Go West, Young Democrats
5 Diamond Demography
6 A Non-Southern Platform
7 The Path to a National Democratic Majority
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index