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Overview
“A wake-up call . . . Moser’s argument is cogent.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Blue Dixie, Bob Moser, an award-winning political reporter for The Nation, argues that the Democratic Party needs to jettison outmoded prejudices about the South if it wants to build a lasting national majority.
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. Moser shows how a volatile mix of unprecedented economic prosperity and abject poverty are reshaping the Southern vote. 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, and with a new afterword covering the ramifications of the 2008 election, Blue Dixie reveals the changing state of American politics.
Synopsis
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.
The New York Times - Chris Suellentrop
Bob Moser falls squarely in the camp that thinks the South is just waiting for the Democrats to remind her of all the good times they used to have together before she shacked up with the Other Party. The party of Franklin D. Roosevelt needs to stand on the Mason-Dixon line, hoist a portable stereo over its head and blast the song that brought the two of them together in the first place—that old-time New Deal religion—into the South's bedroom window, Moser suggests. In Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority, he doesn't succeed in making a persuasive case that this plan would work, but he does achieve a secondary goal: convincing Democrats that the South is a lot more complicated and interesting than they have made it out to be. It just might be a worthy object of their affection.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"An incisive book about campaign strategy… Moser decries the failure of Democratic strategists to understand Southern voters [and] the sting is particularly keen."—The Boston Globe
"A wake-up call… Moser’s argument is cogent."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Moser convince[es] Democrats that the South is a lot more complicated and interesting that they have made it out to be."—The New York Times Book Revew
"Conventional wisdom holds that the South is a solid GOP bloc… Moser explodes this myth."—Charleston City Paper
"Moser [represents] many progressives, liberals and populists in the South… in his important and entertaining new book Blue Dixie."—Independent Weekly (North Carolina)
"Moser argues that Democrats have lost elections when they don’t compete for the South… The solution is a message of economic fairness."—New York Post
"Well-written, well-researched and perfectly timed with this year’s election cycle, this fascinating read is highly recommended to anyone interested in unraveling political fact from fiction and detecting the myriad complicated relationships that knit a nation together."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Moser… argues that Democrats in the rest of the country should put aside their stereotype of the South."—In These Times
"Moser argues that Democrats can take back the South as the distance between haves and have-nots widens and a left-leaning demographic emerges."—Library Journal
"Blue Dixie makes the most compelling case I’ve read for why Democrats must not relinquish the South and, instead, compete hard for its votes, hearts, and minds with a bracing message of economic fairness!"—Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor, The Nation
Chris Suellentrop
Bob Moser falls squarely in the camp that thinks the South is just waiting for the Democrats to remind her of all the good times they used to have together before she shacked up with the Other Party. The party of Franklin D. Roosevelt needs to stand on the Mason-Dixon line, hoist a portable stereo over its head and blast the song that brought the two of them together in the first place—that old-time New Deal religion—into the South's bedroom window, Moser suggests. In Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority, he doesn't succeed in making a persuasive case that this plan would work, but he does achieve a secondary goal: convincing Democrats that the South is a lot more complicated and interesting than they have made it out to be. It just might be a worthy object of their affection.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
This arresting analysis from Moser, political correspondent for the Nation, debunks the belief in an "enduring Republican South," which he terms "the single most destructive myth of contemporary politics." The author wades into the "swirl of stereotypes" to challenge the conventional wisdom of many Democratic strategists, that the South is a Republican stronghold. Moser examines polls and voting trends that belie the idea of a conservative, fundamentalist, inherently racist voting bloc, looking instead at the history of the South as a breeding ground for progressivism and populist economic policies before proposing that the Democrats should stop trying to be "the party of 'Republicans Lite' " in order to win over Dixie. Moser details Jim Webb's and Barack Obama's successes in the South, praises Howard Dean's "fifty-state strategy" for re-energizing the Democratic Party in the region and gives insightful suggestions for how the party can continue the trend. Well-written, well-researched and perfectly timed with this year's election cycle, this fascinating read is highly recommended to anyone interested in unraveling political fact from fiction and detecting the myriad complicated relationships that knit a nation together. (Aug.)
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