Mudcat and Southern Democrats

Much has been written about the plight of Democrats in the South. Last week, political writer Rob Chirstensen weighed in with a piece about Southern Democratic strategist Dave "Mudcat" Saunders. Saunders is out to improve the party’s standing in the South.

"Where I live," he says, "it has become politically and culturally unacceptable for a white man to admit that he is a Democrat."

Saunders blames the party leadership for being out of touch with Southern voters and interests.

"They stereotype us," he says. "They think we sit around the dinner table and rather than talk about the job we just lost, how we are going to get health insurance and how our kids are leaving because they can't find work, instead they think we talk about what new gun we are going to get today, or who we are going to lynch tonight.

"These same people who talk about tolerance have none for my culture," Mudcat says. "The only real tolerance that these people exhibit is for their own intellectual arrogance."

Whether Saunders is right about the root of the leadership’s disconnect from the region, there needs to be a change if they hope to regain the Presidency.