By Loranne Ausley, on Tue Sep 18, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET  No region of America has experienced as much social and political change over the past two generations as the American South. In less than half a century, it evolved from a Democratic stronghold into a region dominated by conservative policymakers. Not surprisingly, such a change profoundly impacted the lives of Southern citizens. It also altered the American legislative dynamic.
However, the South remains in flux. Driven by changes in demographics, it has over the past few election cycles shown increasingly Progressive tendencies. Accordingly, Project New America – which was formed five years ago as Project New West by Western leaders, thinkers, and strategists as a tool to interpret and exploit the values and attitudes driving two decades of dramatic growth in the West – has now turned its resources and expertise to the South.
In an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities inherent in the South’s changing fabric, Project New America officially launched The Southern Project at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September, 2012. Modeled after its successful efforts in the West, this collaboration of Southern leaders will conduct and compile state-based research designed to guide strategy, messaging and civic engagement efforts.
Project New America’s subscription model provides a ready-made dissemination mechanism for its research and strategy tools. Many progressive actors in the South already receive PNA research through their national annual subscriptions. PNA is also developing a robust training program to ensure that its research and data can be easily translated into action. Specific deliverables include a series of trainings and the development of a comprehensive tool-kit of strategies and actionable language that will be made available to PNA subscribers and other Progressive stakeholders in the Southern region.
The Southern Project currently includes a broad scope of research in Florida and North Carolina that will provide a critical foundation upon which PNA can build. Initial research projects and intensive trainings have been completed this summer. Coming next is a regional effort that will begin to provide stakeholders with a much richer understanding of Southern voters, and the values-based messaging that can resonate with them. The goal is not merely success over the next few elections, but a state-by-state shift reversing the trends of the past five decades.
Please click here to take a look at our new website and learn more about The Southern Project by clicking here.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Sep 18, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Why I write on Facebook.
Several years ago I was watching one of those news magazine shows and the story was about the the explosive popularity of eBay. A very busy business man was interviewed who used eBay almost daily for routine purchase.
They asked him why he liked eBay so much. He paused for a moment and answered, “I work constantly on multiple business deals during the day and when I take a few minutes break I want a diversion that truly takes me away somehow. So I go the eBay on my laptop and check things I’m bidding on. It is a sort of release. Even if it’s only 5 minutes at a time 8-10 times a day. It helps center and refresh me.” Those aren’t the exact words, but they convey the idea of what he said.
I think I use Facebook the same way. It’s a sort of release several times a day that helps refresh and center me. And, yes, connect me –to people in the rest of my world (virtual world, anyway).
And at some point in my mid 40’s something happened to me. I was in a restaurant in Frankfort with several friends and someone at the table pointed out another table with a group of energetic young people. Normally when I’d see a table like that, I’d avoid them but I turned slowly to my (younger) friend and smiled broadly and said, “I can’t explain it, but I don’t really want to meet those young people—but I do have this overwhelming desire to mentor them. It’s bizarre. I just want to put my hand on their shoulder and offer advice. What the heck? Am I going through male menopause? Am I molting or something? What is happening to me? Oh, and by the way, I want to talk to you about your relationship with your father and how that is hindering you in your personal and professional life.”
OK, That’s not verbatim….but it’s in the ball park.
My friend didn’t want my advice. And the young people at the table didn’t either.
So I opened a Facebook account where I can write these random, disjointed, goofy but sometimes marginally (or accidentally) insightful thoughts that pop into my head. For fun and for free. Besides, I don’t have any other hobbies to take up my time.
And it is cathartic.
Oh, and the other thing that happened at about this same time, I decided it was better to be real and connect with people as you are than to be admired and never really connect with people as yourself. Which means, well, you just don’t care as much anymore what others think. What you think becomes more important to you. At least it did for me. Appropriate but real. Respectful but open.
And that is cathartic too. And surprising. I never know what is going to come out of me. So….I guess I’ll keep doing it until this molting phase is complete.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Sep 17, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
If you are middle-aged and want to get your “Cool on,” here’s an idea.
The other night while hanging out in the Electronics section of Wal-Mart—just minding the business of my own bad self— I was bombarded by a Wal-Mart promotional adloop featuring “Mr Worldwide.”
I felt foolish not knowing who Mr Worldwide is and could tell by his demeanor and confident speech that I should have heard of him.
I tried Googling him on my iPhone but can’t read the small text–but could tell from the search returns Mr Worldwide was important, cool and goes by the more traditional name “Pitbull.”
He grows on you.
After about the 20th loop you start thinking to yourself, “He’s not as irritating as I thought during the first 10 loops and I don’t think he’d hurt me–so maybe he’s a gansta-type I can pretend knowing about and it would up my cool status and not be too outrageous.
 So I want to get the word out to other midsters who– may be like me and not have heard of Mr Worldwide (aka Pitbull)– that he exists and we need to know about him if we hope to stay relevant to the younger generation.
If you want to know more about him and his bad self (his bad self, unlike mine, apparently really is bad) and don’t follow modern rap music, then get down to your loca Wal-Mart and stand in the Electronics section—near the flat screen TVs and you can learn all about him.
Heck, I feel cooler already.
By Artur Davis, on Mon Sep 17, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  How odd is it that Barack Obama’s acceptance speech seemed the least consequential part of the week that just ended in Charlotte? While the average, not over saturated with politics voter probably received Obama’s talk more favorably than most pundits, who from left to right (with the charmingly amusing exception of Al Sharpton) panned the talk as fair to middling, it was certainly an address that was low on ambition or imagination. Michael Gerson is probably right to suggest that an incomparable number of political low-lights could offer it at a Democratic banquet next weekend without making much of a stir.
But the evidence, as of this writing, is that Obama gained measurable ground last week, at least before being hit by another set of poor jobs numbers. Whether the gains last, or fade as other Obama bounces have done this year, depends on how effectively Team Romney pivots to reenter the conversation this week, and how much the dark economic clouds dominate post-convention coverage. It is fair, though, to conclude that Democrats used their week more effectively than their Tampa counterparts.
 Part of the difference, obviously, is the bravura speechmaking of Bill Clinton, who seems destined to hold two spots of prominence in this era: the last universally popular president and the sole politician of his generation who mastered the technique of persuasion. In a time span in which Barack Obama and George W. Bush won the presidency primarily by selling themselves, and in Bush’s case, and perhaps Obama’s, held the office by relying on their opponent’s deficiencies, Clinton alone has the gift of arguing for a theory of government and policies that match it.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: The Democrats’ Fury
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Sep 14, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET About a decade ago, a friend of mine called in a local radio station to report a tree had just fallen during a rain storm and was blocking a major traffic artery. The call was appreciated, reported amd my friend even got to give a live update and describe the situation as it was developing. He was thanked for doing a good civic deed.
That impressed me, and I hoped to someday be able to volunteer my own civic good deed –by reporting back from about some important fact that those at home would appreciate knowing about.
Today, I feel, is my moment.
So here goes:
“Hey Louisville, I have been out driving all over our city for nearly 4 hours now and, I swear, almost every store is closed. Don’t go out unless you have to or just want to go to Thorton’s or Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are both open. And so is Panera Bread. But there isn’t a single place in our city open for a hair cut, if you are a guy. If you are a guy and want a haircut today, forget it! Ain’t happening! Wait until tomorrow. Or call a friend who cuts hair in her apartment —but even she is probably not working today because she is at some barbecue or cookout. And if Walmart is open today –and you absolutely have to get your haircut–don’t buy a Flowbee. I bought one once and it doesn’t work like on TV.”
OK, Louisville, over and out. Or whatever it is I am supposed to say.
Hey, next time I am going to do this with a cute weather girl so we can do some happy chatting about now–but since I am alone, I can’t do any vacuous chatting so I am just going to stop.
By RP Staff, on Fri Sep 14, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET Contributing RP, and former Republican National Chairman, Michael Steele, reported on the past weeks’ political conventions in an interview with John Stewart on his prestigious “Daily Show.” Watch it here:
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Sep 13, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Powerless power pack. I was so excited about my new iPhone power pack which your iphone fits jnto on those days you need it for longer than an hour and 45 min.
And today was one of those days I walked, confidently tonight, strutted really, as because I knew my power pack was with me and ready for action at the critical moment my battery drained out.
Well, it happened. Out it came, and I cockily inserted my dying iphone and then punched the power packs nifty power button. But nothing. Again, I pushed and poked and pressed every button I could find. But the power pack wasn’t up for it tonight.
Maybe it was a charging issue.
Maybe it just didn’t feel like saving the day.
Because even power packs need days off.
I couldn’t get mad.
I sympathetically and discreetly slipped the pack back into my pocket.
Didn’t want to embarrass it.
And just before I tucked it away, I held it up and said, “Don’t feel bad. I have had the same thing happen to me on multiple occassions. Let’s go home, get in bds and just watch cable and get recharged. Maybe tomorrow night…”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Sep 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET I love Asian restaurants, and I really like the taste of Fortune Cookies.
And, yes, I always read my fortune.
You never know. But lately my vision has declined and I am no longer able to make our my fortune on Fortune Cookies. I can make out a few key words and the beginning or ending clause —but no specifics. Just enough to get a general idea that it is basically good news for me (or something upbeat).
That can be reassuring –but only if you can be certain. My idea is that an especially big Fortune Cookie be created for people over 45. It’s more about the cookie for us. And instead of large print with a long quote, just have a large thumbs up or thumbs down.
That’s all we want at this age. Details aggravate and confuse us.
I don’t care If my fortune is about travel, finances, business, health, whatever. The only news I want from my Fortune Cookie is whether things are looking good for me or not.
That’s it. And a bigger cookie
By Artur Davis, on Wed Sep 12, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET After two unaccustomed weeks away from writing on this site, I return with some observations about the shortened, but effective Tampa convention. The primary one is that Mitt Romney completed a phase in which he has strengthened himself without having to accumulate unnecessary risk: unlike George H.W. Bush, whose bid to inject energy into the Republican ticket saddled him with Dan Quayle, or John McCain, whose move to exploit Barack Obama’s residual weakness with working class white females prompted him to gamble on Sarah Palin, Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan has added a needed reservoir of boldness with a downside that has proved, so far, to be minimal: two weeks of hammering from Democrats have not had measurable negative impact (the comparably weak favorability numbers for Ryan have much more to do with the hyper polarized climate than the partisan knock-up of his budget proposals) on Romney’s standing. Nor, given Ryan’s deftness so far, the ample experience he has defending his proposals, and the compromised hand Democrats hold on Medicare, is there much reason to fear that the upcoming debate between he and Joe Biden pose more danger than opportunity.
Second, the most obvious vulnerability for Republicans heading into Tampa—that the party’s more hard edged social conservatism might spill too much into view—never materialized. Ironically, had Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin not imploded a week earlier over his tone-death, primitive case against a rape incest exception to an abortion ban, the Republican platform’s own hard line might have garnered more withering scrutiny. Instead, the swiftness and intensity of the Republican blowback against Akin cast one obscure candidate rather than a platform plank as the extreme element in the abortion wars, offering Romney and his party an opportunity to isolate the far right rather than being crowded by it.
Third, Condoleezza Rice’s elegant speech the convention’s second night, marking Rice’s evolution from respectful neutrality to forceful opposition to Obama, was the most significant defection on stage last week—and that is no false modesty on my part. The relatively apolitical Rice’s evisceration of Obama’s tentativeness on the diplomatic stage (as opposed to his assertiveness in marshaling American power in unilateral contexts like the campaign against terror networks) couldn’t be diminished with ad hominem attacks. The surest sign of her impact: the fact that Democratic commentators like Chris Matthews were reduced to coopting the moment by praising its substance and making a mountain out of her failure to call Obama’s name.
Fourth, Marco Rubio’s tour de force address preceding Romney may not have been classic introduction fare, but it signaled that the Florida senator could conceivably dominate the landscape in the next few years in the event of a Romney defeat in a way that resembles George W. Bush’s meteoric ascension in the late Clinton years: like Bush, and unlike Romney, John McCain, or Bob Dole, Rubio seems capable of assembling a front-runner’s coalition that is comprised of grassroots activists as well as establishment donors and operatives. For all of Chris Christie’s brilliance as a conservative reformer in an unpropitious environment, and Paul Ryan’s bona fides as a fiscal truth-teller, it is Rubio whose rhetorical narrative seemed to most energize the delegates. The template is one that could prove enormously appealing if the party’s aspirations shift to reconnecting conservatism to both imagination and boldness, as opposed to austerity. (It will help that unlike Christie, he will not face the peril of a reelection prior to 2016, and unlike Ryan, will not be in any way accountable if the ticket ends up losing.)
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: Takeaways from Tampa
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Sep 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET This is my third Democratic convention but my first in a parking lot.
We made it to Charlotte but without tickets to the convention. My wife, Rebecca, put her name in two raffles the last two days (I didn’t ) and won convention tickets both nights. So I drop her off and stay in a parking lot. She’ll post some great pictures soon. Can’t wait!
 Exciting! Waiting for president to speak….just several parking lots from the convention parking lot!
Hold on…I see some friends from KY delegation….
I am back now. Explained I was just staying in the parking lot tonight again—but that it still felt special and historic. More special and historic than any event I have experienced alone in a parking lot. I also asked them if there was an after party—and added I may go to it or at least park nearby.
It’s not bad. Oh wait! I think I see a husband from the Georgia delegation parked in the same lot with me. Ha. Can’t help thinking to myself that he looks like a total loser sitting alone in a parking lot now. Geez! Get a life pal.
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No region of America has experienced as much social and political change over the past two generations as the American South. In less than half a century, it evolved from a Democratic stronghold into a region dominated by conservative policymakers. Not surprisingly, such a change profoundly impacted the lives of Southern citizens. It also altered the American legislative dynamic.
