The end of the southern strategy

Senator Allen, your supporters can go home
now. We lost.


As Jim Webb became Senator-elect Webb, it is clear that the Southern strategy is, if not dead, dying.

The Allen campaign showed this in spades. From macaca to beating on Mike Stark, Allen showed that the old south had limited appeal to modern Virginia. Harold Ford lost by three, not 30 points. The race baiting of the NRSC blew up on them.

Departing RNC head Ken Mehlman understood one thing, a white Republican party is a doomed Republican party. But, to satisfy the base, they have limited their future growth. Their hand picked negro candidates were slaughtered at the polls, losing by landslides. Instead of splitting the Dems, it ensured a Dem majority.

But the NRSC reached for the race and immigration card in races where it hurt, like in New Jersey and Rhode Island. Instead of firing up the base, between Katrina and the immigration protests, you have a generation of votes who are less inclinded than their parents to vote for Republicans. In fact, hating the GOP is now perfectly acceptable

The Colbert Report had a skit with former SNL castmember Tim Meadows walking around Harlem asking people how they would vote.

One man was asked why would he vote Democratic

His answer "because I'm black".

Something Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell saw in their crushing defeats Tuesday.

But time and again, the GOP race card blew up on them because of one simple thing: demographics. American is fast becoming a 50-50 country racially, and the Dems no longer need the South to hold the House or Senate. Even though they can run and win in some Southern states. Migration and growth have opened up the west for Democratic gains as well.

But time is passing the GOP by. In the last election, their base defected in large numbers. Serious issues are begining to trump GOP fear mongering.

Take the case of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison from Minneapolis. He was literally demonized for being a muslim. It was hard to believe that a black muslim could cause so much upset. You would think he was Osama's son from reading LGF, the little cheetos-stained cowards couldn't believe he won. Proves they'd never been in the military, where black muslims are, oh extremely common

But they couldn't defeat him with slander.

George Allen ran such an inept campaign that to say he used race is impossible to say. But it certainly defined him as some kind of loon, longing for a day when men could own slaves. But it all started when he said to an Indian-American Webb volunteer, "Welcome to America, macaca"

Which is really, "look at the nigger".

Only problem, he was born and raised in Virginia. From there, Allen was defined as someone wedded to a past he had no claim to.

As America changes, playing the race card is no longer a guarantee of victory.