If I were to create an anonymous political blog, I would name it “Heilige Scheisse,” because those seem to be the first words out of my mouth whenever I read the news these days.

• This scenario is pretty much the same story as I heard from various sources right after 9/11. But the Republicans are also the gang that believes $3m to investigate 9/11 and $70m. to investigate something, anything about Bill Clinton is about right.
• It’s an article of faith around California that, right after the Supremes did their thing in late 2000, at the very least energy traders figured they had a friend in the White House. “Go ahead, screw ’em, they didn’t vote for me.”
• Every time I think this Administration can go no lower, they manage to surprise me.
• Duct tape and plastic sheeting? Duct tape? Didn’t one person—just had to be one, speaking quietly even—say aloud: “Gee, you know, people might make fun of this. Think we’re not serious. Come up with headlines like ‘Duct and Cover.'”?
• In case you haven’t heard, duct tape and plastic sheeting are petroleum products. Jesus, these guys are oilmen to the core.
• I got two fucking words for you, you morons: North fucking Korea! Oh, that’s right: their missiles can only hit the West Coast, and we didn’t vote for you.

I’m going to go read some happy-happy fun things, like romance novels or the Anarchist’s Cookbook. See you later.

You should be reading Orcinus. No, no: in addition to of Nobody Knows Anything, not instead of. Just get up 5 minutes earlier every day.

Orcinus has an interesting entry about the Republican party’s Southern Strategy and another entry about how the Republican party no longer has the Big Tent—frankly, it’s hard for me to imagine they ever did, but all I know of the Republicans is Reagan-Bush-Gingrich, so there you go. Anyhow, the “Southern Strategy,” for those of you’ve been dead recently:

The Southern Strategy was developed to take advantage of the upheavals of the southern structure (Bass and De Vries, 1976, 22-33). The major goal of the Southern Strategy was to transform the Republicans’ reputation as the party of Lincoln, Yankees, and carpetbaggers into the party that protects white interests (Klinkner 1992; Bass and DeVries 1976; 22-23). Thus, subtle segregationist threads are sewn in to the tapestry of the Southern Strategy.

The upshot of this move to the right and assumption of the right-wing, segregationist elements of the South is the Republican Party we have today:

What I didn’t realize, of course, was just how much havoc the devil’s pact by Nixon, in signing on to the Southern Strategy, would wreak on the party itself. But it became immediately manifest by the late 1970s that the conservative movement — which was more of a Trotskyite ideological movement than genuine conservatism, in my estimation — had taken over the party’s larger machinery.

I don’t think there’s much debate that the Southern Strategy has completely altered our political landscape (and, as it probably goes without saying, has done so for the worse).

So here’s my question:

Why is the conservative/reactionary Southern white male vote so goshdarned important?

I’m sorry if that’s a completely naive question, but for the life of me I cannot understand why this regional group has had such a large effect on the rest of the nation. Why did the Democrats (until the Civil Rights movement) and then the Republicans pander so hard to them? Are they a much larger voting bloc than I imagine it would be? Is it the money of reactionaries like Richard Mellon Scaife?

Any pointers to discussions of this subject would be most welcome.