Whatever Happened to White Southern Democrats?

Doing the right thing is sometimes downright inconvenient. In the Democratic Strategist there is a piece discussing how Democrats are re-considering majority-minority districts. While I think it would be a great idea to revise how legislative district lines are drawn, I just don't see how it's practical.

A little catch-up for those of you who don't know how about this stuff. After the civil rights revolution, moderate southern Democrats continued to defeat conservative Republicans despite the conversion of white rural voters to the GOP. They did so by combining all of the black vote with about a third of the white vote. The result was that Democrats continued to dominate the House of Representatives despite Republican success at the Presidential level. (Yes I'm grossly simplifying but bear with me).

This situation changed in the 1990's when white Republicans allied with black Democrats in state legislatures to re-draw district lines. The new map combined black voters into a few majority-black districts, leaving all of the other seats lilly-white and Republican. The blacks got more of their own elected to state legislatures and Congress, while the Republicans got a majority of the over-all representation in the South. In Georgia in 1990 there were 8 white moderate Democrats, 1 conservative Republican (Newt Gingrich, who was barely re-elected), and one black Democrat (John Lewis). Four years later there were 3 black Democrats and 8 white Republicans. Moderate whites were no longer able to win elections because they had to compete in either entirely black or entirely white districts, and as a result white moderate Southern Democrats simply disappeared as a political force. Elections in the South became increasingly polarized along racial lines, delivering the entire region to the GOP, and with it control of the House of Representatives (as well as many state legislatures).

Now if Democrats really want to get back into the game, the smart thing to do would be to re-distribute black voters again, so that as many districts as possible had a 25-30% black population. But I'm afraid this is impossible, because the black Democrats would obviously block the move. I'd love it if this weren't so, but I find it difficult to believe that elected black politicians would threaten their careers by breaking up their districts. While I personally think that a) blacks could still win in 35% black districts, and b) the black community would be better served by a Democratic than a Republican majority, many don't agree with me.

So much like abolishing the electoral college, I think that trying to eliminate majority-minority districts is probably a waste of time. They are likely here to stay. But hey, how about one attempt at a deal - such as massive DNC support and preferential committee chairs for black incumbents in exchange for breaking up one seat in each state? It probably won't work, but it might be worth a try.