Incomes in South lag nation

No surprise here, but U.S. Census data released yesterday shows that Southerners have some of the lowest median incomes in the nation.

According to the Associated Press, "Mississippi had the lowest median income, at $32,397. West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and Montana rounded out the bottom five. The median household income for the nation was $43,318."

The article also noted that while the populations of Southern and Western states have been growing faster than those in the Northeast and Midwest, the relative income positions of the regions have not changed much during the last decade.

Furthermore:

Most of the wealthiest counties were suburban, and nearly all the poorest ones were rural.

"This is a reflection of a poverty problem in non-metro areas," said Dean Jolliffe, an economist at the Department of Agriculture. "These are areas where there really isn't any economic development going on."

Jolliffe tracks "persistent poverty" counties, ones in which at least 20 percent of the population have lived below the poverty level for at least 30 years. There were 386 persistent poverty counties in 2000, and 340 were outside metropolitan areas.

None were in the Northeast. Most were in the South.

Soldiers once and now

Please allow a small intrusion on our discussion about building a more progressive South. I'd like to reconize a series of stories worthy of wider distribution. It's a story where many of the key players are Southern. Some hail from small Alabama towns like Auburn and Alexandria. Many played college sports in the South. It's a war story, one that military-proud Southerners will identify with. But the real reason for posting it is so that we won't forget the sacrifices of soldiers made famous in the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young."

This month marks the 40th anniversary of this historic Vietnam War battle. Earlier in November, Anniston Star Sports Editor Jimmy Creed spoke with some of the survivors from Ia Drang, offering a poignant reminder of the events. You can read them here, here and here.

As the nation finds itself in yet another difficult military situation -- this time in Iraq -- one Vietnam vet Creed spoke with presents a clear-eyed GI's perspective. "Hate the war, love the warrior."

Will the Rise of 4 Virginias help 1 Party?

An election brief of the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election by Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute covers new ground regarding a potential political realignment in the Commonwealth. The research team has discerned the development of 4 main geographic regions around which state political trends center: Northern Virginia, Tidewater, Capital Region, and Shenandoah. The report offers insights into what changing geographic, economic and demographic trends hold for future elections after Democrat Tim Kaine’s recent victory.

The authors note that their report "does not assert that the 2005 Virginia governor’s race will predict the outcome of the 2006 and 2008 elections. But it does examine the geography of the 2005 race and considers how some of the strategies used in the campaign may factor in the next midterm and presidential elections."

Among the key items discussed is the potential successof Democratic campaigns based on bread and butter issues like growth management, transportation and economic development in Republican-leaning states. While the jury is still out on all of the factors that swung Virginia in favor of a Democrat in 2005, the authors hold that:

Kaine has shown that with a direct appeal to quality of life issues, [and] Democrats can at least compete in the exurbs…Even if it does not work, the growth politics card will almost certainly be played and that may prove the most lasting impact of the 2005 Virginia election.

Although the analysis is not comprehensive, it does offer a good starting point to consider how politics in this reliably “red” state may be shifting. In particular, this should be of interest to progressives and centrists as Virginia’s outgoing governor, Mark Warner, begins his trek toward the 2008 presidential election.

Southern identity changes

A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows the number of people who identify themselves as "Southerners" is shrinking, leading some to forecast the region is changing in interesting ways.

While a third of respondents said they were born outside of the South, only 77 percent of people born in the South considered themselves to be "Southerners," results showed. According to the story on the poll:

Things are indeed changing in the South. And so is the notion of what it means to be "Southern." In this most maligned and mused-upon of American regions, the term conjures up a variety of images: magnolias, front-porch swings and sweet tea for some; football, stock cars and fried chicken for others; lynchings, burning crosses and civil-rights marches for still others.

We've had the Solid South, the Old South and the New South. But are we heading toward a "No South"?

More of the series on what it means to be Southern and how the notion may be changing:

• The Southern accent
• Southern politeness
• Outsiders making presence in Southern statehouses
• Hispanics flow into the region

Katrina, the old South, and the new South

Don't miss this op-ed piece in Saturday's New York Times by Georgia professor James Cobb. In it he touches on the animosity, the religiosity, and the generosity he sees in the South in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

His argument: "If the Hurricane Katrina experience reveals that the South remains in many ways what Mr. [Howard] Zinn described as a 'marvelously useful' mirror where other Americans can see some of their nation's most egregious flaws magnified, it also suggests that in looking southward these days they should recognize some of its most admirable virtues writ large as well."

Cobb's piece is brief but memorable for its even-handed approach. Even almost three months after the catastrophe, it's too easy to forget about Katrina for many Americans. Cobb's essay will help.

Robbing schools to pay the Waltons

You would think it would be a good thing for a state -- especially a small Southern state -- to have the world's biggest company headquartered within its borders. But while Wal-Mart has certainly sparked some local economic development around its corporate offices in Bentonville, it also demands tax breaks and other concessions that negate the benefits of its presence in Arkansas.

In the latest example, Bentonville has voted to put valuable Walton property (including the site of a new Walton art museum) inside a three-square-mile Tax Increment Finance District. That means all property tax increases in that district for the next 25 years will be directed to the businesses inside the district instead of the schools for which the taxes were approved by voters in the first place.

The museum will get a parking deck and streets serving businesses will be improved -- all at the expense of education. Like other cities across the South, a concept that was intended to combat urban and rural blight (TIF) is being used as a gratutious business subsidy. Arkansas law allows any shortfalls in school funding that this TIF produces to be made up by taxes paid in the rest of the state. So the rich get richer.

It is probably unconstitutional to take minimum school millage to build streets and other infrastructure for the Waltons or anyone else. And it is probably unconstitutional to redirect money voted by the public for schools to build streets and infrastructure for the Waltons' or anyone else's private projects. Will a lawyer take this argument to the Supreme Court? Probably not one from Bentonville.

The Future of Southern Downtowns

Downtown residential development has become a rallying cry for urban leaders across the nation and South. In an attempt to turn urban cores into places that bustle 24/7, public officials have invested in efforts to persuade more individuals to live downtown.

Southern leaders interested in downtown development should consider the findings of a new study by Eugenie Birch of the Brookings Institution. Birch’s analysis of population, housing and demographic trends in 44 large America cities between 1970 and 2000 yielded several key findings:

• Downtowns experienced a renaissance during the 1990s. The number of individuals living in downtowns grew by 10 percent and the number of downtown households rose by 13 percent.
• Downtown populations have become more ethnically diverse compared to 20 years ago.
• Downtowns contain a larger percentage of residents who are young and college-educated compared to cities and suburbs.
• Downtowns house some of a city’s most and least affluent households.
  

The 16 large Southern cities included in Birch’s study posted a mixed performance during the 1990s. Collectively, the number of individuals in Southern downtown grew by 8.8 percent during the 1990s. Miami’s 31 percent increase in the number of downtown residents was the region’s largest, while Columbus, Georgia, saw its downtown population drop by 24 percent.

Additionally, the long-term trends for the South’s downtowns are concerning. Between 1970 and 2000, large Southern cities saw their downtown populations decline by 22 percent even though their total populations grew by one-third.

The Brookings’ study suggests that downtown residential development is not necessarily the best tool for economic growth in the South. A handful of Southern downtowns – Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Norfolk, New Orleans (pre-Katrina), Chattanooga, Dallas and Miami – show promise and have the potential to attract the affluent, well-educated young people whom economic developers covet.

Many other Southern downtowns, however, actually are barely growing or losing residents. These cities include Austin, Lafayette, Columbus, Jackson, Orlando, San Antonio and Shreveport. These downtowns have older, less educated and less affluent residents.

The data presented in the new report should caution Southern leaders against jumping automatically onto the bandwagon of downtown residential development. Such a strategy may be perfectly appropriate for certain cities but perfectly inappropriate for others. Decisions about public investments therefore should be made on an individual basis rather than through a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Thanksgiving can be time of need

A story on National Public Radio highlights how all Americans don't face plentiful food year-round.

While some 250 million Americans know they'll get their next meal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says some 38 million Americans face "food insecurity," which means the "can't be sure they'll have enough money for food. About a third of that group at times goes without eating."

With the exception of Virginia and Florida, every Southern state has a higher percentage of food insecure households than the national average (11.4 percent of 111.3 million households). Here's the breakdown:

Alabama.............1.8 million households......12.2 percent food insecure
Arkansas............1.1 million...........................14.8 percent
Florida................6.8 million..........................10.8 percent
Georgia...............3.3 million..........................12.3 percent
Kentucky............1.7 million..........................12.2 percent
Louisiana............1.7 million...........................11.8 percent
Mississippi.........1.1 million...........................15.8 percent
North Carolina...3.3 million..........................13.8 percent
South Carolina...1.6 million..........................14.8 percent
Tennessee.........2.3 million...........................11.5 percent
Virginia..............2.8 million.............................8.5 percent

[Source, "Household Food Security in the United States, 2004," page 20; Economic Research Service, USDA]

Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute noted in an email sent around earlier today:

This time of year it is more important than ever not to lose sight of those who struggle to put food on the table every day. ... While hunger is increasing The House of Representatives is proposing to cut the food stamp program by $700 million over 5 years, which would result in 220,000 to 250,000 low-income people each month losing food stamps. The Senate, with the strong support of [GOP] Senator [Saxby] Chambliss, has proposed no cuts in the food stamp program. The Senate and House are currently negotiating the budget differences in a conference committee.

Words to take to heart.

Democrats & Religious Authenticity

The Virginian-Pilot explores whether the recent election of Tim Kaine as governor of Virginia is significant for Democrats beyond the Commonwealth. The article notes the attention that Kaine’s victory is receiving among national party leaders who hope to fare better among religious voters.

For a few years now, Republicans have been more effective in using religion,” said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum. “One reason they’ve been successful is the Democrats were not talking about it. ... The Kaine campaign is worth paying attention to because he’s unusual among contemporary Democrats. He’s talking about his faith.

Kaine, whose dedication to the Catholic Church was highlighted by his service as a missionary in Honduras, made the conscious decision to emphasize his faith up front in this election despite reservations from some in his own party.

“I was very discouraged with Democratic campaigns where either a candidate would not talk about their values or it’s been a feature of some Democratic campaigns to attack the 'religious right,’” he said. “There’s a whole lot of people who feel like we’re attacking them.” Kaine said the reaction to his use of religion in his campaign was mixed among Virginia Democrats. “Some people in the party who were very uncomfortable with what I did said it to my face,” he said, “but I had others who said to me 'Thank goodness.’”

Despite his victory, some observers express skepticism about the role that Kaine’s faith played in winning this election, particularly with Virginia’s small Catholic population.

“I don’t think there is a Catholic vote in Virginia,” (UVA professor Gerald) Fogarty said. “My general suspicion is that religion didn’t have much to do with the election, but Kaine put a more pleasant face on his values.”

Kaine will become Virginia’s first Catholic governor when he is inaugurated in January. Regardless of the current consensus, or lack thereof, on the role that his religion played in gaining the confidence of the notably-conservative voters of the Commonwealth, progressives would be wise to search for any lessons that Kaine’s electoral successes hold for Democrats throughout the South who wish to reach out to the faith community.

Rethinking Abortion

Studies by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press consistently have found that Southerners hold much more conservative views on abortion than their counterparts in other regions and the nation as a whole. In an August poll, for example, 38 percent of Southerners responded that abortion is morally wrong in nearly all cases.

Southerners' generally conservative views on abortion have caused countless difficulties for Democratic candidates. To reflect the views of their constituents, Southern Democrats need to stake out a moderate-to-conservative view on abortion, but such a view is unlikely to be received favorably by a national Democratic Party that draws tremendous support from supporters of abortion rights. Thus, Southern Democrats are torn between the competing demands of their party and their constituents. Pleasing one group only alienates the other.

The story of how "pro-choice forces gradually became the Democrats' most important, and insistent, interest sector" is told by Peter Boyer in the November 14th issue of The New Yorker. While Boyer's article focuses on Pennsylvania's upcoming U.S. Senate race, it contains valuable lessons for Southern politicians.

To challenge incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum, the Democratic Party has nominated Robert Casey, Jr. Not only is Casey a popular state treasurer, but he also is the son of former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey, a pro-life Democrat who was not allowed to speak at the 1992 national convention. The younger Casey, like his father, is a supporter of organized labor and the ability of government to do good, but he is opposed to abortion. These views have endeared Casey to many of Pennsylvania's rural and conservative voters, but have distanced him from Democratic activists and donors.

The problems facing Casey and the Democrats in Pennsylvania resemble those facing Southern Democrats. Should a strong candidate who champions fundamental Democratic issues not be supported simply because of a stance on a moral issue that is unpopular with activists but is popular with the voters?

As the race unfolds, Casey's campaign could provide valuable lessons for Southern Democrats looking to negotiate the tensions between the conservative beliefs of voters and the liberal views of party leaders and activists. Southern Democrats consequently would be well advised to keep their eyes focused on the Keystone State.

Full-time legislatures

A recent investigation by the Raleigh News and Observer (story link here) has spurred increased debate about what kind of state legislatures are most effective.

The newspaper investigation found that N.C. lawmakers received a combined total of $57,000 in per-diem pay for days that they were absent from the legislature. There has been some misplaced outcry in response; the real debate is about whether legislators are being paid enough for the nearly full-time work that is actually required of them.

North Carolina has a part-time legislature whose members earn less than $15,000 in annual salary, with more money for expense allowances. This arrangement, combined with the need to raise big money for campaigns every two years, means that the General Assembly is off-limits to all but the wealthiest state residents.

Most other Southern states have part-time legislatures too. I'm curious to know if anyone has experience with full-time legislatures and whether that is a more effective model for good government.

Rethinking Faith & Southern Politics

On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist Convention lost one of its legends, the Rev. Adrian Rogers. Rogers is credited with driving the South’s most prominent religious group – and arguably the largest American Protestant denomination – on a rightward path toward fundamentalism. Beyond simply affecting their Church, Rogers and his contemporaries also helped changed the face of American politics as part of the convergence of religious and political conservatism. According to CNN:
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The conservative movement Rogers helped lead also pushed the denomination to stronger political opposition to abortion, homosexuality and the ordination of female pastors, said Bob Allen, a writer and commentator for the Baptist Center for Ethics, an independent Baptist organization headquartered in Nashville. "The Southern Baptist Convention today would be part of the religious right and 20 years ago it would have been more mainstream," Allen said. "I think it would also be fair to say the conservatives have developed pretty strong ties to the Republican Party." In 1992, members of the SBC who called themselves moderates broke away and formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. While Rogers may have been less well-known outside the SBC than some other Baptist leaders, "no one has been more influential inside the Southern Baptist Convention," Allen said.
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Particularly in the Bible Belt, the growth in influence of the SBC and allied conservative organization reshaped Southern politics. In Virginia – home to conservative Christian leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson – the rightward charge led many pastors, congregations, and church members into a more moderate stance. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch notes:
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The national fundamentalist shift prompted the formation of two statewide organizations. The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia supported the shift more strongly than the moderate members of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, a statewide umbrella organization. The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia left the Baptist General Association of Virginia, but both groups are part of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, which broke away from the Southern Baptist Convention, created a different definition of what it means to be a Baptist. The organization remains affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Rick Clore, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, said Rogers' work led members to examine their beliefs. About 360 churches belong to the group, which was formed in 1993 and supports the separation of church and state and the autonomy of local churches.
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Rev. Rogers’ passing provides yet another opportunity to consider the proper role of religion in public life. In the South, faith has always informed public policy decision-making and influenced civic behavior. As the news articles note, the entirety of the Baptist community in the South did not travel the conservative route. As such, progressives and centrists should continue to seek understanding of the hearts and minds of the Southern faith community in order to build a more inclusive “movement” here. In particular, if progressives can find common ground with moderate-leaning churchgoers – especially whites – who are unaffiliated with the more conservative elements, the opportunity to foster another paradigm shift in the region’s politics could be on the horizon.

2006 election preview

UNC-Chapel Hill's SouthNow blog this week is offering a preview of the 2006 elections across the South:

While Southern states decisively voted for Bush a year ago, most are now split on his presidency, with voters in even reliably Republican states like Mississippi and Alabama giving him a 48 percent approval rating. If the presidential election were held today, it would be a very different story in the South than it was a year ago.

But what about the election in 2006? While many of the states in the South were quiet in 2004, next year promises to be a busy campaign year in the South. There are six Senate races in the South, at least two of which will be hotly contested. And, there will be a staggering eight governor’s races in the South, and several of those will rank among the most competitive in the country. Add to the mix a handful of competitive House races, and the South in 2006 will likely see more campaigning than they did in 2004, when, with the one exception of Florida, Republicans and Democrats spent more time convincing party faithfuls to campaign in swing states in other regions than trying to get them to the polls in their own state.

• Click to view the preview US Senate races in the South

During the rest of the week, the blog will review:

Tuesday, Nov. 15: Southern governor's races
Wednesday, Nov. 16: Southern U.S. House races
Thursday, Nov. 17: Other key Southern races
Friday, Nov. 18: Issues for 2006

Southern governors: Best and worst

Today's issue of TIME magazine profiles five of the best and three of the worst governors in the nation. Making the list of best are two from the South: Republican Mike Huckabee from Arkansas and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia. Among the worst: Republican Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana. Some excerpts:

Huckabee:

Huckabee is now a mature, consensus-building conservative who earns praise from fellow Evangelicals and, occasionally, liberal Democrats.

Warner:

He slashed spending for everything but education, cutting $6 billion in costs, eliminating 3,000 state jobs and even shutting down driver's-license offices one day a week. That gave him credibility as a fiscal conservative, which became important when he discovered that spending cuts were not enough to put the state on sound financial footing for the rest of the decade....He pulled together an unlikely coalition that won enough g.o.p. votes to pass a $1.4 billion tax hike, the largest in Virginia history—and put the state on the road to fiscal stability.

Sanford:

Business leaders are losing patience with Sanford's vetoes of budget items like trade centers and tourism marketing. Even G.O.P. bosses charge that he is worse at economic development than at grandstanding, as when he visited the legislature last year carrying piglets to protest what he considered pork-barrel spending.

Blanco:

She was slow to call the legislature back into session to deal with a nearly $1 billion decline in tax revenue. Her suggested cuts--to education and health care--came under fire last week as unrealistic. In 21 years in state politics, Blanco, a Democrat, was always cautious and deliberative. But those qualities have turned into liabilities.

The Changing Face of the South

The Courier-Journal has very nice series on the "Lost Boys" of Sudan. About 200 refugees from war-torn Sudan have resettled in Louisville.

Over recent years, Louisville, like many cities across the South, has seen tremendous growth in its immigrant population.

From Immigration to the Louisville Metropolitan Area: Trends and Characteristics…

“The rapid growth of immigration to the Louisville metro contributed to a noticeable increase in foreign-born persons in the state of Kentucky. Between 1990 and 2000, the foreign-born population if Kentucky has almost tripled, increasing to 97 thousand people, or 2.5 percent of the total population. Kentucky ranked third among all states by the rate of growth of its immigrant population in the 1990s. By this indicator Kentucky (+185 percent) was behind only Alabama and North Carolina, but well ahead of traditional immigrant states of Texas (+60 percent), California (+33 percent) or New York (+25 percent). These numbers are particularly impressive if one recalls that in the previous decade, that is between 1980 and 1990, the foreign-born population of Kentucky did not increase at all.”

Interestingly, while Mexicans make up the largest immigrant group for the US as a whole, “During the 1990s, the national composition of Louisville’s immigration was dominated by one group, Vietnamese, which alone was responsible for 24 percent of the total inflow. Vietnam was followed by two other Asian nations – India (5.4 percent) and China (5.2 percent).”

The increase in immigration is a trend across the South. The Center for Immigration Studies found that in the 1990s “the new areas of immigrant settlement are overwhelming in the South,” where 131 counties were determined to be “New Ellis Islands” – or “counties in which the number of new legal immigrants (1991-1998) was equal in size to at least 50 percent of the existing foreign-born population in 1990.”

Confronting Poverty

"Our labor market is broken," said Peter Edelman of the Georgetown University Law Center. The former aide to Sen. Robert Kennedy then discussed some of the factors that have caused almost half of all American workers to essentially run in place over the last three decades.

Edelman delivered his remarks on Wednesday as part of the conference "New Frontiers in Poverty Research and Policy" hosted by UNC's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, and led by former Sen. John Edwards, the Center serves as a discussion forum for innovative ideas designed to help Americans escape poverty.

Wednesday's conference gathered political and academic experts from across the nation, along with thought leaders from across North Carolina, for a day of discussions. Topics included the role of public policy in confronting poverty; the relationship between family structure and poverty; pathways out of low-wage jobs; and the role of community development in fostering opportunity.

One theme that ran throughout the day was that the welfare reform initiative of the 1990s succeeded in bringing low-income individuals into the labor market. However, at the same time that low-income people entered the labor market, policy choices and economic changes like outsourcing eliminated many jobs in the middle of the labor market. As a result, low-income individuals have no where to go and wind up stuck on low-level jobs that frequently pay low wages, provide few benefits and offer little mobility. The challenge, therefore, is to build pathways and provide supports that allow low-income families to work themselves into better paying positions.

King of the Hill?

Barry Bingham, Jr. has an op-ed in The Courier-Journal about the coal industry's practice of mountain top removal. As Mr. Bingham points out, the practice not only produces severe environmental concerns, but human and sociological ones as well.

Mountaintop removal mining is turning Eastern Kentucky into a despicable latrine, cluttered with the offal of the industry. Rotting vegetation, mud and rocks clog the streams and rivers. Wells and streams that once ran pure are too polluted for human use and are dead to aquatic life.

And the devastation of the land is not the only scar left by this industry. The destruction of tranquility that accompanies their enterprise destroys communities and the people who live near the areas that are being mined and have been mined. People's homes are wrecked by "fly rock" from the blasting at the mines and can also be destroyed by mudslides resulting from the "valley fill" technique of pushing earth and rock from mountaintops into surrounding coves and ravines.

In the hunt

Deer season opens in Arkansas on Saturday, and the Morning News had a good story about hunting. It's still enormously popular in Arkansas, but the ranks of hunters are starting to decline as lifestyles change around the state, and that's a trend familiar to other Southern states.

Those first shafts of sunlight will glisten off the guns of 250,000 hunters when dawn breaks over Arkansas on the opening day of deer season Saturday.

That's five times more people carrying firearms than the number of soldiers in the Civil War battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove combined. The legion of hunters makes opening day of deer season among the largest one-day events in the state.

[. . .]

The sale of resident hunting licenses has gradually declined in the last five years.

"We're concerned about it but not overly concerned. It's a national trend," Henderson said. Arkansas has a strong hunting tradition, Henderson said, but hunting isn't as important in most people's lives as it was when he was a youth.

He ranked the health of the sport in Arkansas "somewhere between holding its own and thriving."

"Access to places to hunt is our biggest challenge," he said. Development of rural land for homes and businesses shrinks acreage for wildlife and for hunting. People own smaller tracts of land than they once did.

Va. Gov. Campaign, Among Other Things, A Test Of Faith

Last night, Democrat Tim Kaine was elected Governor of Virginia in a win over Jerry Kilgore.

Much of Kaine's campaign was centered around the coattails of term-limited current Gov. Mark Warner, also a centrist Democrat - one with presidential ambitions for 2008. However, the Washington Post noted today (along with our own John Simpkins last week) that more than just Warner's coattails, Kaine effectively made his faith an issue in the campaign:

Kaine defended himself against Kilgore's attack on the subject by saying that it is his beliefs as a deeply religious Catholic that lead him to oppose the death penalty and abortion. But he also said he would follow the law on capital punishment and advocate laws that protect the right to abortion.

"The elite never really got that argument," said David Eichenbaum, one of Kaine's media advisers, referring to columnists and others who wondered how Kaine could be, in his words, "morally" opposed and yet pledge not to try to change the law. "But people who heard him got it."

In this instance, the key is an ability to separate one's religious beliefs from one's public duty. Moving forward, this can become a hallmark for progressives of faith as they campaign for office in the face of attacks from the radical right. Indeed, Kaine's faith helped him completely neutralize one of the most negative ads in recent memory in which Kilgore said he wouldn't have executed Hitler.

The Post story continues, quoting a George Mason University professor:

"I think this is an interesting test case for Democrats to see if you can run a faith-based campaign focused on values and do so as a progressive candidate in a Southern state," Rozell said.

It worked, Rozell said, because of Kaine's frequent reference to his service as a missionary in Honduras while in law school and his familiarity with the language of religion. "It did not come off as calculated," he said.

The point is made most clearly by Kaine in his acceptance speech:

In his victory speech last night, Kaine told the crowd, "We proved that faith in God is a value we all can share regardless of party."

Indeed.

Daily outmigration in some Southern states

More workers live in some Southern states than work there, according to new figures from the U.S. Census.

Daytime population drops in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Virginia as workers travel to other states for work.

According to the Southern Growth Policies Board:

"More workers live in these states than work there (the figures take into account people 16 years and older who were employed and at work during the study week). In Arkansas, over three-quarters of residents live and work in the same county, compared with less than half of residents in Virginia."

Jimmy Carter's new book

Just caught some of an interview with former President Jimmy Carter on C-SPAN2's Book TV in which he discusses his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.

He talked about the war on Iraq, criticized the Bush Administration and more, as he also related to The Christian Science Monitor recently:

Among his charges: Members of the Bush team "decided to go to war against Iraq long before George Bush was elected." Now that the United States is on the ground in Iraq, Mr. Carter said it would be "a very serious mistake preemptively to withdraw." But the Bush administration's decision to invade to prevent any future act of aggression from Saddam Hussein's Iraq came in for a scathing reproach. "The attitude of going to war against a relatively defenseless country in order to prevent violence in the world is a complete fallacy," Carter said.

The book also says religious fundamentalism is putting the nation at risk, according to Newsday:

In a new book, "Our Endangered Values," he lashes out at a religiously based "fundamentalism" in the Bush administration and in the Republican Party and says it is putting the country at risk.

This looks like the kind of book Southern progressives need to read. It may help them get over worrying about talking about religion when they're trying to connect with people and lead.

Getting Religion in Virginia

Friday afternoon's All Things Considered on NPR contained a segment on the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial election. The Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, has distinguished himself by openly speaking about his faith. In contrast, the Republican challenger, Jerry Kilgore, has been far more reticent about introducing religion into the campaign.

NBC News reporter Mark Murray writes about Kaine's campaign style in the October/November Washington Monthly. Murray points out that other Democrats are developing a message that is rooted in faith:

Even though Dean might not have helped his cause by stating in June that the Republican Party is “pretty much a white Christian party,” the DNC he chairs has hired a former congressional staffer to develop their religious outreach program. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has established a Faith Working Group, and members in both chambers of Congress have invited a series of progressive religious leaders to sit down and talk with them. Democrats note that their governing philosophies and policies—combating poverty, expanding health-insurance coverage, and promoting civil rights—dovetail with religion and faith. “Democrats really tend to get the Good Samaritan principle; that the purpose of life is to serve God, but also serve your neighbor," Kaine said.

Communicating Across Generations

In a panel discussion held yesterday at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Center for a Better South's John Simpkins outlined the generational challenges confronting Southern progressivism.

Simpkins delivered his remarks as part of the UNC School of Government's annual "Conference on Public Administration," a gathering of public-sector leaders from across North Carolina. This year's conference focused on the theme of "Functioning in a Multi-Generational Work Environment."

According to Simpkins, Southern progressivism only will succeed in bettering the region if it connects with citizens of all ages. Making that connection, however, requires progressives to address three barriers:

1. Tradition often separates older progressives who believe in a more orderly, elite-driven approach to change from younger progressives who support community-led change.
2. Generational shifts mean that issues important to older progressives are not seen by younger progressives as particularly relevant and vice versa.
3. Diversity poses new challenges to the region. For example, Southern progressivism traditionally has focused on relationships between blacks and whites, but rapid immigration has created an entirely new racial and ethnic dynamic.

Simpkins was joined on the podium by Bob Garner, communications director of AARP North Carolina, and Shannon Vickery, executive producer of content at WUNC-TV. Together, the three panelists sketched the generational changes remaking the South and offered thoughts about how public-sector organizations can better engage citizens of all ages in the work of democratic governance.

A Final Indignity

As the nation mourned the passing of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, South Carolina was officially mum on the matter. That is, flags over state government buildings were not lowered to half-staff on the day of her funeral. Flags flying over federal buildings within the state were lowered at the instruction of President Bush. Governor Mark Sanford's office, however, said that the Governor lacked authority to lower the flag. The story appears in the November 3 edition of The State newspaper.

The Governor's spokespeople insisted that he did not have proper authority to order flags to be lowered to half-staff. His ability to make such a request is limited to these circumstances. Nevertheless, it would have been a painless act for the Governor to take to the steps of the State House (perhaps even the side facing the memorial where the Confederate battle flag flies) and shame the General Assembly into passing an emergency measure to properly honor the life of Mrs. Parks. This newfound timidity is surprising and disappointing from the same chief executive who, just a few months ago, brought to pigs into the chamber of the state House of Representatives to illustrate the out of control porkbarrel spending in the legislature. He followed that up--literally--with a horse and buggy act.

Lowering flags over state buildings to half-staff would have cost no political capital. If anything, another well-timed use of the bully pulpit would have earned the Governor praise for showing a leadership role on an issue of importance to the South Carolinians of all races who share a commitment to racial equality. That my Governor could not take the lead on such a clear issue of simple dignity is disappointing and embarrassing.

Why lotteries are bad public policy

The North Carolina legislature just passed a lottery this summer, and it is already mired in corruption before the games even begin.

The Texas Lottery suffered last month when the failed Harriet Miers nomination dredged up some old, bad history of how corrupt it has been.

Georgia is so desperate for easy money that it may soon sell lottery tickets over the internet, which would make tickets far more accessible to minors.

The Southern experience with lotteries is bad and getting worse--yet South Carolina, Tennessee, and now North Carolina have all passed lotteries in the past four years.

Full Text of Oprah Winfrey's Eulogy of Rosa Parks

This was delivered on Monday at Metropolitan AME Church. The transcript is from CNN.

"Friends, admirers, and this amazing choir. I feel it an honor to be here to come and say a final goodbye. I grew up in the South and Rosa Parks was a hero to me long before I recognized and understood the power and impact that her life embodied.

"I remember my father telling me about this colored woman who had refused to give up her seat, and in my child's mind I thought she must be really big.

"I thought she must be at least 100 feet tall. I imagined her being stalwart and strong and carrying a shield to hold back the white folks.

"And then I grew up and had the esteemed honor of meeting her, and wasn't that a surprise. Here was this petite, almost delicate lady who was the personification of grace and goodness. And I thanked her then. I said, 'Thank you' for myself and for every colored girl, every colored boy who didn't have heroes who were celebrated. I thanked her then.

"And after our first meeting, I realized that God uses good people to do great things. And I'm here today to say a final thank you, Sister Rosa, for being a great woman who used your life to serve, to serve us all. That day that you refused to give up your seat on the bus, you, Sister Rosa, changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of so many other people in the world.

"I would not be standing here today, nor standing where I stand every day had she not chosen to sit down. I know that. I know that. I know that. I know that and I honor that. Had she not chosen to say, we shall not, we shall not be moved.

"So I thank you, again, Sister Rosa, for not only confronting the one white man whose seat you took, not only confronting the bus driver, not only for confronting the law but for confronting history; a history that for 400 years said that you were not even worthy of a glance, certainly no consideration.

"I thank you for not moving.

"And in that moment when you resolved to stay in that seat, you reclaimed your humanity and you gave us all back a piece of our own.

"I thank you for that.

"I thank you for acting without concern.

"I often thought about what that took knowing the climate of the times and what could have happened to you, what it took to stay seated. You acted without concern for yourself and made life better for us all.

"We shall not be moved.

"I marvel at your will. I celebrate your strength to this day and I am forever grateful, Sister Rosa, for your courage, your conviction.

"I owe you to succeed.

"I will not be moved."

Vote counting

Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels this week announced that Election Systems & Software (ES&S) of Omaha, Neb., has been selected to provide counties with updated voting equipment that meets standards set by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

According to a press release, "ES&S was selected over Diebold, Inc. of Canton, Ohio, which submitted the only other qualifying bid."

Diebold is the Republican-backing outfit whose leader famously promised to do whatever was necessary to elect George W. Bush, not long before a suspiciously large margin for Bush in Diebold's home state of Ohio (and a suspicious shortage of machines in precincts expected to vote Democratic.)

But ES&S doesn't come with clean hands either. Central Arkansas voters might remember ES&S as the architect of the infamous touch screen machines that kept registering votes for Republican Bob Thomas instead of U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder in the 2000 2nd District congressional election. And this is just one of ES&S's past foibles.

With Georgia recently trying to require citizens to present government-issued photo identification in order to vote, add voter machines to the growing list of concerns surrounding the basic integrity of the electoral process in Southern states.

Indicted ... again

While Lewis "Scooter" Libby's indictment garnered most of the headlines last week, an Alabama politico also found himself in hot water with the feds. Don Siegelman, Alabama's former governor who is currently campaigning to win his job back, was indicted on corruption charges last week. Also charged was HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy.

Both figures have escaped the prosecutor's noose in the past 12 months. Scrushy beat his accounting fraud charges four months ago. And it was about one year ago that charges made against Siegelman were thrown out of federal court.

The former governor blames his troubles on "a few obsessed government officials" who "have spent millions of taxpayer's dollars in a pathetic attempt to control the election for governor. ..."

Federal prosecutors' offices -- ones led by Republican appointees -- do seem to have it in for the Democrat. Then again, the former governor is much like Pigpen from Peanuts comic strip. What appears to be a cloud of dust and dirt seems to follow him wherever he goes.

Who can say how the next case will play. It's sure that running for office under indictment, while not unprecedented, won't be easy.