A SOUTHERN PARTY
The South is now, more than ever, the base of the Republican Party
BY KEN WARD

Ken Ward is opinion page editor of the Press Journal in Vero Beach, Fla. A Las Vegas resident from 1990-2002, he was a freelance columnist with the R-J and assistant managing editor at the Sun. E-mail him at kenricward@juno.com  Other stories by Ken Ward

Assuming there's still a definable difference between Democrats and Republicans, the South - 141 years after the War Between the States - remains distinctly apart from the rest of the country. While the GOP lost 28 House seats last month, just four came out the 11 states of the old Confederacy. Two of those were in South Florida, where Jews outnumber Crackers; one was in Texas, where the Republican hoping to succeed Tom DeLay was relegated to write-in status; the other was in North Carolina, where former Washington Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler ran to the right of the incumbent.

On the Senate side, George Allen (R-Va.) lost to Jim Webb, thanks to Allen's foot-in-mouth disease and toxic doses of liberalism seeping across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.

But Webb joins just four Democratic senators from the South (vs. 17 for the GOP) and Southern Republicans now hold 81 of their party's 196 seats in the House - a historically large percentage.

While the rest of the nation turns bluer, Dixie - whose voters broke 52-45 percent for the GOP - remains defiantly red. This countervailing trend is nothing new; the South has marched to its own beat since antebellum days. And it will quicken its step as Democrats push their high-tax, anti-gun, anti-church, pro-gay and pro-death agenda.

The biggest danger to the Republican Party is in trying to imitate that "winning" lineup.

Neoconservatives who trash the traditional values and religiosity of the South should be careful what they wish for. Their elitist talk echoes left-wing losers like John Kerry and Howard Dean, who infamously derided the GOP as the party of "white Christians" while describing himself as a "metrosexual" (whatever that is).

Whether the Chamber of Commerce types recognize it or not, the South is now, more than ever, the base of the Republican Party.

Minnesotans can elect a black Muslim to Congress. New Yorkers, Illini and other Yankees can fawn over Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Massachusetts can keep sending all-Democratic delegations to Capitol Hill. Seventy percent of Hispanics and Mestizos out West can vote for the donkey.

But while Democrats brag about their "big tent," the South stands apart - and offers the rest of us something better.

If Congress reflected Southern values, immigration would be controlled, there would still be a federal death penalty, affirmative action would be unconstitutional, flags would not burn and gay marriage would remain a foreign concept.

If the White House were occupied by a true Southerner (not a carpetbagger from New England), we wouldn't be in Iraq, or carrying Israel's water. Global capitalism would not be rammed down our throats.

Big winners in the 2006 election were some 12 million illegal aliens, who now have their best shot at yet another Democratic amnesty. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will, no doubt, redouble their push for more open borders and the cheap votes of uneducated immigrants.

If Republicans buy into such self-defeating schemes in the name of business and "broadening" the party's base, the GOP will truly deserve the sobriquet: the Stupid Party.

A smarter strategy would let the Democrats, drunk on their hubris, pursue their corrupt and perverse social agenda. Reel out the rope and let them hang themselves with an impeached judge and a flaming homosexual among their House leadership. Soon enough, true Americans will realize what Southerners have known for decades.

From their stronghold below the Mason-Dixon Line, Republicans can be the commonsense counterpoint to deviant Democratic social engineering. Opposition doesn't require class warfare or budget-busting spending initiatives, but it does take principled, constitutional resistance -something the South has always stood for.

The nation's traditions, its borders and its very soul are at stake. It's a battle worth fighting, and it's only a "Lost Cause" to those who see momentary majorities as the sum total of success. LW