Author Kevin Phillips, who was the father of the Southern
Strategy that led to the domination of the South by the GOP, has
an excellent piece in
The American Prospect on how the Democrats can make
inroads in the South. Phillips, a former Republican, is the
author of a new critically aclaimed book American
Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the
House of Bush which exposes the long running ties of the Bush
family to questionable business deals and the use of the
government for their personal gain.
In my new book, American Dynasty, a chapter titled "The
American Presidency and the Rise of the Religious Right"
develops all of this in much more detail. But suffice it to say
here that the GOP will be hard put to hold some of the extremely
high 2000 fundamentalist and evangelical support levels that were
inflated by the unusual impeachment-period hostility toward
Clinton. Moreover, a backlash against the religious right can be
expected in much of the North in coming years if -- and it is a
big "if" -- the Democrats can spotlight these
parochialisms effectively.
-All
Eyes On Dixie, Kevin Phillips in The American Prospect
Listening to Kevin Phillips talk about politics, it's easy
to mistake him for a populist firebrand from the 1890s. He rails
against the growing inequality of wealth in America. He bemoans
the unprecedented influence that private corporations hold over
public institutions. He attacks the "smug conservatism"
of George W. Bush and accuses the president of attempting to
establish a family dynasty better suited to royalist England than
to democratic America.
-Rolling
Stone
Well, the consorting with shady, nasty characters goes
back quite a long way. As I mentioned, George H. Walker was
playing games in Germany and Russia in the 1920s, and the U.S.
government was trying to stop some of what he was doing. By the
1930s, you had Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the current
President, who was, for some time, a director of several
companies that had relationships with Germany after it had gone
under the control of the Nazis.
-Kevin
Phillips in Buzzflash interview
Rob is the
founder and editor of the progressive news site robwire.com and is a
frequent contributor to rob.dailykos.com
and http://robnotes.blogspot.com