Sweet home Alabama where skies are blue

[cyrano]

So I'm disgruntled by the general assumption that the main weapon for winning a presidential campaign in the southern US is a drawl.
But maybe I'm wrong.
Are southern voters that.... focused? That pretty much the main thing that matters to them is if the candidate or his running mate is 'suthaan enuff'?

Comments

[sararainmaker.livejournal.com]

I'm just disappointed that I can see already that this is going to be a nasty dirty shit-throwing, name-calling election year.

Why can't they just say what they want to do, be honest about it, and let us choose?

Re:

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Because the people have proven that they respond more appropriately to a name-calling shit-flinging campaign than an honest one.
Remember Mondale saying 'Of course we'll have to raise taxes'?

Re:

[sararainmaker.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Sometimes I think the animals of this world de-evolved into us, not the other way around.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

There is still, I think, a lot of resentment in the South towards those damnyankee politicians. By no means is being Southern the only thing that wins you votes in the South, but it may well be "necessary but not sufficient": being as extremely Yankee as Kerry is may indeed hurt somewhat.

Southron voters

[purchasemonkey.livejournal.com]

   I'm a college-educated, displaced Southerner who's lived in California for 15 years now. I consider a strong Southern accent to be a sign of lack of education; most Southerners in business or politics lose or reduce their accents, even when speaking to other Southerners, in the same way that black folks who escape the ghetto don't talk gangsta at board meetings.

   Bias stated, I'm of two minds on the phenomenon. My gut reaction, if a politician starts using a Southern accent when campaigning in the South, is to think that he's condescending to Southern voters, trying to be "folksy," and to get annoyed. Playing to the stereotype of Southerners as xenophobic hicks who don't like fancy-talkin' city-folk irritates me, although of course that stereotype exists for a reason (if nothing else, Yankees tend to look down on Southerners, and Southerners know this very well).

   The secondary reaction, however, is this: I'm a displaced Southerner who usually has no accent whatsover, yet, when I go home (and I still call going to Louisiana "going home," all these years later), my accent returns within minutes, as it does when I talk to my family on the phone. My friends who've traveled with me to New Orleans for Mardi Gras find the sea change in my speech patterns bizarre and even affected, despite the fact that it is unconscious. It's even difficult for me *not* to speak with my accent in that context. As a result, if Gen. Clark or Edwards pick up Southern accents when campaigning down South, I can't really blame them; it may be a wise political move, but it may also be the actual tendency of the educated Southerner to regress in speech patterns in the Southern context.

Re: Southron voters

[outlawcoon.livejournal.com]

I have the exact same tendency when dealing with people that have accents (like my folks)--it's not necessarily deliberate.

However, to cyranocyrano, hell no, accent isn't everything. I'm just depressed that both Kerry and Bush have said they're going to support that kicked-around U.S. amendment to say only a man and a woman can be legally married.

It's a sad, sad day when even the Democrat can't be relied on to be socially liberal.

Re: Southron voters

[windrose.livejournal.com]

The secondary reaction, however, is this: I'm a displaced Southerner who usually has no accent whatsover, yet, when I go home (and I still call going to Louisiana "going home," all these years later), my accent returns within minutes, as it does when I talk to my family on the phone.

I do the same thing. I also find my accent starts slipping out when I'm very emotional, or very tired.

I've never found that a strong Southern accent is an indication of a poor education. I do find that non-Southerners tend to have this bias, and I've known people to shed their accent because of the perception that a twang means the speaker is racist, uneducated hick, a stereotype guaranteed to make me see red.

As for myself, I lost most of my accent because I went to school primarily with Yankees. I also tend to be an "accent vampire", and unconsciously pick up the accent of whatever area I happen to live in, or the people I spend time with. This was especially noticeable when, after rooming with a Massachusetts Yankee for several months, I came home for Christmas break speaking with the classic "pahk the cah in Havahd yahd" accent. This prompted my very Traditional Old South grandmother to opine, "If you like them so much, why don't you just move to Boston!"

(Oh, and for the record, my roomie's family had a similar reaction to the Southern accent she'd picked up from me. ;-)