So, now Dean is of the opinion that blue-collar Southerners are all confederate flag-waving yahoos.
What’s next? Will he try to attract black voters by voicing his support of watermelon, fried chicken, and tap-dancing?
Mmmmmm, fried chicken and watermelon! He has MY vote! 
Link?
The OP clearly doesn’t understand Dean’s comment. but he shouldn’t feel bad–neither do Dean’s Democratic rivals. Dean 's “I want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks” points out that one of the reasons the Democratic party has lost much of its ground is that it alienates Southern working class whites, folks who used to be solidly Democrat but then defected to the GOP as the Dems came to be seen as the party of exclusively minority, left-wing values. Dean wants to bring those folks back into the Democratic party.
Oops. Sorry gobear, missed your post.
I wish he had chosen something else besides “Confederate flag” to include these people. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that the Confederate flag is a hot button issue, guaranteed to piss people off no matter which side you stand on.
I think Dean has little to apologize for, and gobear has neatly summarized why. But he still should have apologized for the hurt feelings instead of digging in and his comments last night had some of the most far-reaching Repub bashing I’ve ever seen. Save it for Charlie Rose, bud, where you can properly expand your point. This is the sort of stupid thing that starts wounding campaigns beyond repair.
I don’t see how you could not see Deans comments as stereotyping. A more politically astute candidate would have said: “I want to bring the Souther States back to the Democractic party-- the states that used to be solidy Democratic and which have recently supported Republican candidates.”
As a Southerner, I didn’t find his remarks offensive, just… weird. Like, how is his comment going to inspire his target audience to vote for him? :dubious:
If he’d said, “I want all of the Southern gay elite to vote for me,” my reply would be, “Uh, okay, why? Are you going to give money to UVA?”
Now, I didn’t see the debate, so if he followed his comment with a platform of rural welfare, farm aid, economic incentives for automotive plants, and so on, then I apologize. All I have is Soledad’s befuddled stumbling as she tried to explain it to me this morning when I was half-aslseep.
The plain truth is that Dean is a stereotypical thinker and he has revealed himself as such. His true colors are quite obvious now. He equates “confederate flag” with “working class southern whites”. What next? Will he start courting “the fajita-eaters”?
Do Democratic southerners even feel like this is directed at them? Don 't they think they’re “better” than the people he’s describing?
Nont only do you continue to misunderstand Dean’s comment, you also demonstrate that you do not know the definition of a stereotype, which is a simplistic description of a members of a group that reflects uncritical thinking. If Dean had said, “All Southern white working-class men fly the Stars and Bars,” then your ridiculous OP would have some justification.
But the fact is that Dean said no such thing. His use of “Confederate flag” is to indicate a socio-economic demographic he wishes to reach, no different than using the phrase “soccer moms” or “the chattering classes.”
To repeat, “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks” != “all guys have Confederate flags on their trucks.”
From here gobear is just stating the blindingly obvious. Not only does Dean wish to reach that demographic, he is saying that his party needs it and he is confident enough to reach for it when to do so discomforts some elements of of his own party.
SmackFu, interesting question. My first reaction was, “No, of course not, these are my people, and even if I’m different, I like and respect them.”
But then I realized, I’m biased toward them because I come from the same socio-economic background–My father’s generation is trailer-dwelling, Appalacian-living, deer-hunting poor. So I’m biased enough to only see poor white Southerners with affection. I actually purr whenever I hear a real Southern accent, it reminds me so much of home.
These stereotypes are part of my natural existence, so I don’t see them at all, really. The way others do.
I did learn in school that “white trash” is at the bottom of the socio-economic scale in the South, and I will say that, being from North Carolina, I have a compulsion to lift my nose at states I consider more rural and a bit more…traditional… like Alabama and Mississippi (Which is wrong, and I apologize to any SDers from those places). So I guess it could be true that by appealing to one group of Southern voters, Dean’s alienating another group.
Just like when Democrats appealed to black voters in the South, they alienated white voters.
Hm.
Dogface is right.
This is what Dean said, as quoted in the Washington Post article in gobear’s link.
He clearly is stereotyping poor, white Southerners.
Man, what a train wreck. Not one of the Democratic candidates handled this issue correctly, and the way they handled it explains much about why Democrats are losing ground in the South.
The point Dean was trying to make was correct. Working class and poor whites in the South tend to vote Republican, which is against their economic interest. However, Dean screwed up two ways. One, he used a stereotype to describe Southern whites - pickup trucks and Confederate flags. Two, when called on it at the debate, he blurted out that the Confederate flag is a racist symbol. If he didn’t piss off blue collar white Southerners by stereotyping them with the first statement, he did it with the second statement by (in effect) calling anyone who displays a Confederate flag a racist.
Edwards didn’t handle it much better, jumping on Dean with barely-contained glee, pestering Dean to admit he was wrong, but not taking time to address the subtlety of the problem. But hey, Edwards is desperately trying to win the South Carolina primary, and South Carolina, as we all know, is the “Fergit, Hell” state.
What I would have said, were I Edwards (and living in a better world):
"Look, I have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. I understand that not every person who displays a Confederate flag does so to express a racist sentiment. Many display the flag just as an expression of pride in being a Southerner (and I certainly share that pride in being from the South).
"However, I also understand that the flag is understood to be a racist emblem by a good many of our friends and neighbors, and it’s not hard to see how they would think so with the way the flag has been used and abused by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Out of respect for the feelings of those friends and neighbors, and out of a sense of politeness, I think it may be time that we furl that flag and look for a way to bring ourselves together as Southerners, black and white.
“Having said that, I understand and agree with Howard Dean’s point, even if I don’t agree with the way he made it. The Democratic Party is the natural home of all working men and women, all middle class men and women, whether they are black or white. Too many times, the Republicans have used the issue of race or the flag to divide people along racial lines, and distract them from their real economic interests. So I join with Howard Dean in hoping that we can bridge that racial divide, but I would certainly hope that in the future Mr. Dean would show more respect for the people whose votes he is trying to win. I know that Mr. Dean is a man of good will, and meant no offense.”
But of course, Edwards didn’t say that, and I fear the party is destroying its hopes for taking any Southern states out of the Republican column.
As quoted from the same Post article:
Note Dean didn’t outright call it racist, but he may as well have. He’s trying to pander to too many people and, as spoke- says, is clearly going about it the wrong way.
Trying to get chummy with poor, white Southerners by stereotyping them and (almost) simultaneously trying not to alienate voters who find the Confederate flag offensive simply cannot be done.
Dogface’s line about attempting to attract black voters by supporting fried chicken, watermelon and tap dancing is just an attempt to draw a parallel. In other words, what’s next, will Dean say “I still want to be the candidate for the guys with chrome rims on their SUVs”?
I don’t think Dean was trying to appeal to poor white Southern voters at that moment. Rather, he was addressing his compatriots, trying to raise awareness of the issue in a “this is a group we have to pay more attention to” sorta way.
Amen to that. But objectively speaking, how much of a chance does a Democratic candidate from New England really have in the South, anyway?