Mike James is wearing the Cassandra hat tonight……
The Deep South is gone. For Democrats – as it was for Republicans back when I was learning to drive a car.
But those Democrats – back in that other time – crossed political lines to make deals; the new Republicans of the South will not, and I wonder now about the almost permanent stranglehold the Southern Right will have on American politics for the rest of my lifetime.
When Mary Landrieu loses her Louisiana Senate seat tonight, Repub…licans will hold not only every Deep South place in the Senate, but every governorship, and every state legislature.
It’s no one-off – in some of the states Democrats get barely 10% of the vote. President Obama has been essentially abandoned by white voters everywhere but especially here – and it means there’s virtually no chance for significant legislation on climate change, income inequality, serious immigration reform that gives a path to citizenship, or on any issue significant for Democrats nationally. Don’t even mention judicial 
appointments…..
I don’t see – toss me a lifeline, tell me I’m wrong – any dramatic shift coming, because this part of America rejects what it calls “cultural liberalism” (what I would call human rights/common sense), i.e. a woman’s right to control her pregnancy, the right of same-sex marriage, environmental protection, alternative energy, etc. etc.. Those issues, in a Deep South election are losers. They are also critical components of the Democratic Party nationally.
So color me discouraged – though, as I said the other day, I’m not blowing out the candle; we’ll carry on, but I see a very long road.
You’re too pessimistic. What we’re seeing in the Deep South is not a resurgence of 19th century conservatism but the last desperate gasps of a dying culture. The Republican Party will survive, as political parties always do, by changing and adapting to the evolving society. The far right extremism we see everywhere, but is most stubbornly entrenched in the Deep South, on issues like creationism and climate change and income inequality, will drop off like withered leaves when history moves forward.