(This image is from the website mapssite.blogspot.com.)It is no secret that the Democratic Party did very poorly in the South in the last election. In fact, it did so poorly that I have been seeing rumblings from some pundits that the Democrats should just forget the South, and put all their money and efforts into other parts of the country. I think that is a crazy idea, and would be a big mistake.
You can never expect to carry any region if you don't ask the people of that region for their votes. And the South is changing. All you have to do is look at the demographics of the South provided by the Census Bureau. The question is no longer whether the South can ever go Democratic, but how long is it going to take before that happens. It probably won't happen by 2016, but it won't be too far down the road (as the percentage of the White population dwindles, and the percentage of minorities continues to grow -- especially Hispanics and Blacks).
The pundits may not realize this, but the Republicans certainly do. That's why they have gerrymandered the hell out of the South, and why they are trying to suppress minority votes with Voter ID laws. They are trying to hang on as long as possible, because they know the demographics of the region are working against them. If anything, the Democrats should put more effort (and money) into cultivating Southern votes (to counter the GOP efforts and make that change happen a little bit sooner).
Chris Kromm at the website of The Institute for Southern Studies agrees that ignoring or abandoning the South is not a viable option. In fact, he considers the South to be a great opportunity for Democrats. His entire article is well worth reading, but below I present his four reasons to keep engaging the South (along with the four maps he provides to prove his point):
1. The South is too big to ignore.
2. The South isn't the Democrats' biggest problem.
3. The South is home to the Black Belt
4. Demographics in the South are rapidly changing
