Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Southern Strategy

Glenn Reynolds:

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So what is it about the south? I think it's defence. Some time between the election of John F Kennedy, and the ignominious defeat of 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern, the Democrats lost credibility on national defence. From Kennedy's stirring "bear any burden, pay any price" language, to the "peace at any price" slogans of the anti-war left in 1972, the Democrats lost their traditional stature as the internationalist and interventionist war party. Instead, they became identified with the welfare-state liberalism of the north-east and west coast, and with the anti-military sentiments of the anti-Vietnam war movement.

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To understand the American south's role on defence, it's helpful to look at what political scientist Walter Russell Mead calls the "Jacksonian tradition" in foreign affairs. Because when Zell Miller - a Democrat from Georgia who is deeply unhappy with his party on matters of national defence - delivered the keynote address at the Republican national convention, he spoke in the purest tones of Jacksonian America.

Jacksonians (as Mead explains in this interview) aren't very interested in foreign affairs, but respond vigorously to threats:

"[The idea is]: Don't bother with people abroad, unless they bother you. But if they attack you, then do everything you can ... When somebody attacks the hive, you come swarming out of the hive and you sting them to death. And Jacksonians, when it comes to war, don't believe in limited wars. They don't believe, particularly, in the laws of war. War is about fighting, killing, and winning with as few casualties as possible on your side. But you don't worry about casualties on the other side. That's their problem. They shouldn't have started the war if they didn't want casualties."

Read it all. Glenn does a good job of explaining the South to the liberal limeys.