Whither Goest Southern Democrat?

The Abbeville Institute vehemently works to document and describe the utter, wholesale eradication of Southern Conservatism. Essay after essay details the tragic, malicious events which transpired under the authority of nefarious actors like William Buckley Jr. and others to tether Dixie to the Republican Party and modern neoconservatism. One overlooked factor in this brainwashing and subjugation of the Dixian mind is the downfall of the Southern Democrat. I came across a lengthy, yet worthwhile article on the Abbeville Institute recently which covered this topic. Originally published on Reckonin.com and discussing his upbringing in a still Democratic South Carolina, the author elaborates on the mistake it was for Southerners to shift to the Party of Lincoln. I, too, shall discuss my own perspective of this phenomenon as a member of a younger generation of Southerners and my own perspective as a regional cohort from a different state.

Born in 1996 at the cusp of the generational turn from Millennial to Generation Z, yet born and raised in South Mississippi, I have lived to watch my state, one of the most notoriously rightwing in the country, change from a stalwart bastion of conservative leanings to a moderate one while still carrying the stereotypical Deep South negative reputation. In short, Mississippi is not nearly as rightwing as often made out to be. More on this topic later.

I was born at the tail end of a Democratic Mississippi. With the ascendancy of the MS Republican Party on the horizon at my birth, I have spent my entire rearing and adult life in a GOP dominated state surrounded by ardent GOP supporters. Throughout my rearing, I believed the Republicans to be the “good” party and the Democrats to be the “bad” party. What truly shocks the senses is the asininely short memory of the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers. Adhering whole heartedly to the “Republicans good” mantra, they forget that the Deep South, until 1990 and in some cases the early 2000s, still willingly held a powerful Democratic political stratum and consistently voted them into the governor’s office. Unlike the all too common assertion of it being “the lesser of two evils,” I fail to see any evidence provided to support this claim, but I do recognize how this slimy Party of Lincoln managed to wrap its grip around the Deep South’s jugular.

The GOP ascendancy across the Deep South was multifold. The liberalizing of the national Democratic Party played a part. Though nominally more self-controlled than their GOP counterparts, not even the remaining Southern Democrats could withstand the negative impact of unmitigated leftwing terrorism throughout the 1970s and the ascendance of Ronald Reagan. His presidency further damaged the Democrat image. Plus, Jerry Falwell convinced Christians that voting GOP was the Christian thing to do. Televangelists once held quite a great deal of sway over America, and Falwell played no small roll in getting Reagan elected. Yes, Southern Protestants were brainwashed to flock straight into the arms of the cutthroat GOP and to forget they had ever voted Democrat. It is painful to say but that is the simple truth. Throughout the conversion of the South from Democrat to Republican, there was a major campaign in place to undermine Southern Conservatism, alienating influential historians and journalists like Mel Bradford via National Review and William F. Buckley, as well as, redirect Southerners towards vague ideals about crime and support for Israel. Now that that pill is swallowed and not wishing to delve into the heresy of the Christian Zionism which also influences the GOP supporters, the more interesting moments of the Democratic fall from grace took place in the Deep South at the state level.

Though Louisiana stands out as a unique case in which the Democratic Party never truly collapsed nor did the GOP succeed in wrestling control from it, it may be noted that the GOP takeover has largely succeeding in the vast majority of statewide positions except governor. I am not informed enough to discuss why this is, but it most likely has to do with New Orleans’ large population and the incompetence of Republican governors.

With that out of the way, the best case studies here are Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi. I’ll keep this brief. Alabama’s Democratic strength finally began collapsing once Democratic Governor Jim Folsom Jr. maliciously, and without precedent, removed the Rebel Flag from the state capitol. It is worth noting his Republican successor was part of the Christian-right, Moral Majority crowd. Georgia began electing Republican governors after the Democrats, under the leadership of Governor Roy Barnes, forced the state to change its flag via a governor’s executive action, despite widespread opposition, in 2001. South Carolina began shifting Republican under the encouragement and leadership of Strom Thurmond, but its last Democrat governor, Jim Hodges, left office in 2003. He declared MLK Jr. Day, initially a federal holiday and a highly controversial one at that, a state holiday and removed the Rebel Flag from the South Carolina Capitol Building, but he did compromise this by simply moving the flag to a flagpole on the capitol grounds and did pass the South Carolina Heritage Act, which protects public monuments. Ray Mabus began liberalizing Mississippi in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the same vein as Bill Clinton in Arkansas, forcing Democrats into a downward spiral. The last Democrat governor was Ronny Musgrove, leaving office in 2004. Each and every time, these states flipped simply because the Democrats betrayed their Southern roots and often failed to appeal to the Moral Majority, yet held on to power as long as they did because they still held the image of being a native and a supporter of the working class.

Tying this in with my previous statement about Mississippi being more popular than one would suspect, Mississippi today is far more liberal now, and continues to grow exponentially more liberal, under the tutelage of the Republican bootheel. They have done nothing to bring good jobs to the people of Mississippi, yet land prices continue to skyrocket. They have done nothing to prevent mass immigration from the third world which is then utilized by greedy “Good Ole Boys” to make a quick buck and get out of paying local Whites and Blacks decent wages. They have done nothing to combat the obvious Marxism preached in the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi. They have done nothing to push back against the LGBT insanity of the Left, despite homosexuality and its derivative never being popular here. They have done nothing as critical race theory creeps into our public domains. They have done nothing as Marxism out-of-staters and affluent weirdos flock to this state, buy land, and drive up land prices. They have done absolutely nothing to improve the quality of life in this state and make it a place worth living for the up and coming youth.

What has the MS GOP done exactly? If anything, the Republicans have aided and abetted these trends willingly, stuffing their pockets while Mississippians are forced to suffer. I can discover not a single factor in which the state has improved since the GOP has taken over. We have lost ground on every major socio-political fight imaginable since Haley Barbour came along in 2004; the Democrats cannot possibly be blamed. In fact, the GOP was the deciding factor and played the largest hand in forcing the removal of the 1894 Flag without a vote. The slimy Republican Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann and arrogant, smarmy Republican Speaker of the House Philip Gunn were the most influential voices in the tyrannical change. All of this has been done while these same Republicans do their level best to crush the advancement and leadership of bona fide conservative state leaders such as State Senators Chris McDaniel and Melanie Sojourner. Additionally, the state’s population is beginning to decline as young people are leaving the state, whether after high school graduation or college graduation, in search of better jobs and a better future elsewhere. This state is in decline.

The icing on the cake is Tate Reeves’ blithering incompetence and going back on his word that Mississippians should have a vote on the flag issue. At least the Democrats let Mississippians decide on the flag change during the 2001 referendum. Fortunately, there is a movement called “Let MS Vote” if any of you are interested in looking it up; they do have a Facebook page under that name.

Where does that leave all of us in the Deep South? There is a recent trend among Democratic gubernatorial candidates of trying to moderate their stances and put on a more “Southern” image. Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana has been the most successful so far. Former Attorney General Jim Hood of Mississippi put on the country boy image and declared himself pro-gun and pro-life in his 2019 gubernatorial bid against current MS Governor Tate Reeves and nearly defeated Reeves in the process. Walt Maddox of Alabama also attempted this approach in 2018 against current Alabama Governor Kay Ivey but was much less successful than the previously mentioned candidates.

The days of the GOP’s gubernatorial control of the rest of the states are numbered. The South Carolina GOP is responsible for much of the anti-Southern crusade, thanks largely to Nikki Haley, going on today. The GOP controlled legislature recently quietly refused to ban transsexuals from women’s sports. Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia has mercilessly backstabbed his Republican voters, particularly in the wake of the 2020 election, and was assisted in this endeavor by Brad Raffensperger in refusing to investigate accusations of obvious voter fraud. That is a malicious display of political stupidity on Kemp’s part considering he almost lost to Stacey Abrams in the most recent Georgia gubernatorial election by a questionable margin. With other Southern states lacking any quality GOP leadership whatsoever, the only genuine exception I can find is Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, bringing back memories of the conservative Southern Democrats of old.

I say all of that to say this: the current Republican regime does not hold a candle to the Southern Democrats of a bygone Dixie. The Republican Party simply does not have our interests at heart and has been more of a hinderance to Dixie than any form of redemption or aid. While I am not telling you to vote for the Democratic Party as it is, I certainly will not be voting Republican in any election in the near future.

To be honest, our best bet is forming our own third party.

-By Dixie Anon