Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority

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Macmillan, Aug 19, 2008 - Political Science - 288 pages

A powerful case for a new Southern strategy for the Democrats, from an award-winning reporter and native Southerner

In 2000 and 2004, the Democratic Party decided not to challenge George W. Bush in the South, a disastrous strategy that effectively handed Bush more than half of the electoral votes he needed to win the White House. As the 2008 election draws near, the Democrats have a historic opportunity to build a new progressive majority, but they cannot do so without the South.

In Blue Dixie, Bob Moser argues that the Democratic Party has been blinded by outmoded prejudices about the region. Moser, the chief political reporter for The Nation, shows that a volatile mix of unprecedented economic prosperity and abject poverty are reshaping the Southern vote. With evangelical churches preaching a more expansive social gospel and a massive left-leaning demographic shift to African Americans, Latinos, and the young, the South is poised for a Democratic revival. By returning to a bold, unflinching message of economic fairness, the Democrats can win in the nation's largest, most diverse region and redeem themselves as a true party of the people.

Keenly observed and deeply grounded in contemporary Southern politics, Blue Dixie reveals the changing face of American politics to the South itself and to the rest of the nation.

 

Contents

Mess of Trouble
The Solid Southern Strategy
The Lite Brigade
Dixiephobia
The Donkey Bucks
Color Codes
Big Bang
Getting Religion
Cornbread and Roses
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Bob Moser is an award-winning political correspondent for The Nation. He has chronicled Southern politics for nearly two decades for publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The Independent. A native of North Carolina, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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