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The Democrat's Branson Belt

I got some email about my assertion of a Branson Belt in central California. To recap (and clarify) what a Branson Belt is: A Branson Belt is a region of a larger state where a politcal minorty holds a majority position, and where that minority is dominated by orthodoxy and endeavors to create a majority in the larger state through promoting its orthodox views.

Just as Branson gives hopes to old acts that they will make a comeback without innovation, Branson Belts give orthodox conservatives and liberals that they can do the same.

A political Bransonite can be called paleo-liberal or paleo-coservative.

Michael Totten points to Howard Dean as someone who is so orthodox and old message that he is un-electable, yet inspires the base like no other. A George McGovern.

That Dean hails from New England does not surprise me. In my opinion, New England and California (my beloved home state) constitute the left's Branson Belts. One can imagine Howard Dean selecting Barbara Boxer as a running mate. Not that he'd secure the election for President. Rather, he'd be Mayor-for-life of Branson.

Not that California can't be turned back toward the center-right, where it was for so many years. But the national Republican party will have to de-polarize it's stance on abortion for one, and then it will have to take the lead in "less government = more freedom" by reforming its social agenda around freedom rather than moral orthodoxy (which SCOTUS seems to have rejected as a proper activity of lawmaking in Lawrence).


Adam Sullivan, 15:31 | 0 comments