Ron Brownstein is wondering whether the potential candidacy of Rick Perry carries danger for the GOP, since it could reinforce their image as the party of the South:
In recent years, the South has operated both as a blessing and a burden for the GOP. The region, defined as the 11 states of the Old Confederacy plus Oklahoma and Kentucky, has become the cornerstone of the Republican electoral coalition. Yet as the GOP has become dominant across Dixie, and more closely identified with its uncompromising brand of social and economic conservatism, it has struggled in other regions, especially during the Bush era.Under President Obama, the GOP has revived its fortunes outside the South, both in Congress and gubernatorial races. If Perry runs, Republican voters will be forced to decide whether they believe the party can hold those gains with a nominee who, like Bush, puts an unequivocally Southern cultural and religious face on their party.
I'd go further. Perry may look a lot like George W. Bush on the surface, but the truth is that his persona is much harder-edged and more Southern. Bush may have fetishized Texas, but he did so in a way that wasn't inherently divisive. He deftly tapped into American political iconography, buying his "ranch" in 1999 so he could put on his boots and hat and play cowboy for the cameras. But for Perry, Texas isn't a place out of Gunsmoke; it's about some very specific things: an evangelical brand of Christianity far less inclusive than Bush's, none of Bush's embrace of immigrants, much more aggressive attacks on women's reproductive rights. And it's not insignificant that Perry's drawl is about twice as strong as Bush's; listen to him talk, and it sounds like he's doing an exaggerated Bush impression.
The other Republican candidates wear their home states far more lightly. Yes, Michele Bachmann has something of a Minnesota accent, but it's not as though anyone has a negative reaction to Minnesota, or you're going to hear Mitt Romney speak and say, "Sheesh, he's just too Massachusetts for me." It's not just about the accent, though. If you come up through Southern politics, particularly in the Republican Party, Southern cultural identity -- and resentment directed at the rest of the country -- are probably going to be baked into your political style.
The downside of putting so much emphasis on geography-based cultural affinity is that when you try to go national, it alienates people who aren't from that geographic area. The more distinct Southern identity is, the clearer it becomes to those who aren't from the South that there's something fundamentally different about people who are.
I'm sure some Southerners would find that this smacks of anti-Southern bigotry. But this is the bed they made, and continue to make over and over. You can't look northward and say with sneering contempt, "You're not one of us!" and not expect people to reply, "You know what? You're right."
