Bob Tuke. Mark Clayton. Charlie Brown. Mike McWherter. Gordon Ball. Your statewide candidates since 2006, ladies & gentlemen. (Only one of these races was remotely competitive.)

Democrats have a good message to bring to southern whites and swing voters:
- Wall Street bailout screwed you
- "tax cuts" for 1% are screwing you
- repealing labor laws, etc are screwing you

The problem isn't the message, the problem is getting the message out there. Conservatives have Fox News, talk radio, etc and have even managed to pummel CNN into repeating their talking points at times.

We can't fight them on a national media level. It has to be done grass-roots. Neighbor to neighbor. Social media. Look at how social media has influenced the middle on the issue of marriage equality. Look at how local social media has influenced the discussion of our local schools. Issues of economic equality need to be part of the daily conversation as well.

How many people here on KnoxViews have called into local talk radio to refute the crap that gets repeated there? I only know of myself, one other here, and Carl from NC. If everyone here took a turn, then at least someone in the middle listening could hear both sides of the story. We can't just cede a local media to repeating talking points.

The TNDP needs to take these lessons and apply a local strategy and utilize local people to talk to everyone they can (not just the local democrats that already agree with them) and get THOSE people talking to THEIR neighbors about what's really happening. Issues like "why the hell is TN in last place with job growth? Maybe we need a Democrat for governor or more dems in the legislature since the current supermajority is screwing up our job growth."

The Democrats need a connection. They should beg someone like Tim McGraw to run for them.

The National Democrats abandoned the south after the Clinton magic wore off in 2004. The Rahm Emmanuel faction of the party stomped all over Howard Dean's 50 state strategy. You can't win if you don't build an infrastructure.

These people in Chicago, DC, NYC have NO clue about the culture of the south and they made no effort to learn.

Here's a model they might try to emulate:
(link...)

On abandoning the South.