The Iraq War Debate in One Corner of the South
I will shortly be moving to East Tennessee and one thing I’ve spent a lot of time studying is the unique history of the region. It was mostly pro-Union during the Civil War and it supported the Republican Party consistently in the late 19th and 20th century. When the rest of the South was solidly Democratic, East Tennessee was Republican. It is still solidly Republican, but because of its different trajectory to the GOP – as the old party of Lincoln and not the party of Jesse Helms – East Tennessee Republicans are often less conservative than other Southern Republicans. There are, to be sure, some militantly conservative Republicans in East Tennessee, including failed Senatorial nominee Ed Bryant from the Tri-Cities area. But the most iconic East Tennessee Republican is former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, who epitomized the pre-Gingrich, pre-Lott and pre-Frist Republican Party.
With this in mind, it’s interesting to see how East Tennesseans view the Iraq war. One of only six Republicans to oppose the Iraq war resolution in 2002 was Knoxville’s own John “Jimmy” Duncan, a man who represents Tennessee’s 2nd district. The district has not voted Democratic since 1857. Duncan is no liberal, but his vociferous opposition to the Iraq war has given him unusual authority in today’s cantankerous debate within the GOP over the Iraq war resolution.
The other two East Tennessee Republican Congressmen, David Davis of the Tri-Cities area (Ed Bryant’s old district) and Zach Wamp of Chattanooga, all oppose the resolution. But they haven’t exactly been positive on Bush’s handling of the war as of late. Their opposition is mostly based on the idea that we can’t back out of the War on Terror as a whole. Of course the resolution doesn’t call for backing out of the War on Terror as a whole, just disengagement from the civil war in Iraq where our mission against Islamist terrorism as a whole seems murkier than ever.
That said, the really interesting shift is the lone Democrat among East Tennessee’s delegation: Lincoln Davis of the 4th district. His district technically straddles East and Middle Tennessee, but he comes from Pall Mall in the eastern Cumberland Plateau section of the district. And his district is very rural. He once supported the war and now opposes it. His shift suggests the utter loss of support for the war among Southern conservative Democrats and accurately reflects the drift away from Bush among Independents and other non-Republican though conservative voters. In this corner of old Republican Tennessee, then, the war seems to have fewer supporters than ever.
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6 Responses to “The Iraq War Debate in One Corner of the South”
Elrod – What happened to your stay in Michigan?
Elrod, you touch on something quite interesting in this piece. I wacthed the last congressional elections and noticed something I thought didn’t exsist. In the SouthWest corner of Virginia where Va, Tn, WV, NC, and KY meet was very blue. This surprised me as most of the rural South tends very conservative as in RR/pro-war/tax cuts at all costs conservative. I find it breath of fresh air that atleast a pocket of the South outside a major city can be paleo-conservative/independant/paleo-liberal in the horrible politcal climate we are in.
Pyst,
There’s a complex mix of old politics and contemporary class issues going on there. Like I said, East Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky have historic ties to the GOP that date to the Civil War. But that doesn’t mean the region is more conservative than other areas. In some ways, it’s less conservative than other parts of the South – especially on matters of class and race. For example, when the TVA established built in the 1930s, some of its biggest backers were in Republican East Tennessee. When Goldwater made opposition to the TVA a big part of his 1964 campaign, he was stunned to see so much support for it among Republicans in East Tennessee. The headquarters of the TVA is still in Knoxville. So, on matters of race and class, the Republican Party of East Tennessee is probably more liberal than the rest of the South.
That said, on “culture” issues – usually having to do with matters of religion and gender – East Tennessee is every bit as conservative as the rest of the South. Politicians of both parties have to be culturally conservative in that whole region, not just East Tennessee.
Heath Shuler showed how Democrats can win right over the line in western North Carolina. He is culturally conservative on abortion but solidly liberal on forest management, unions and the war. The Virginia Congressman from far southwest VA is a similar sort of Democrat.
Rudi,
I was only in Michigan on a one-year assignment. My job in Tennessee is permanent.
BTW, my new Republican Congressman in Michigan, Tim Walberg, is a thousand times more right-wing than my soon-to-be Republican Congressman Jimmy Duncan from Knoxville, TN.
Well, Elrod, as a former resident just south of Nashville and actually part of Lincoln Davis’ district, welcome to Tennessee. I don’t know Knoxville all that well myself, but if you cross the Smokies into the Nantahala River Gorge… it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. I hope you enjoy your time there.
I was around when Phil Bredeson won his first term as governor of TN, and it was largely due to a stronger than expected showing in east TN – other areas fell Republican or Democratic as expected. I think he was at the time able to overcome some social differences between his Democratic self and the voters due to his relatively conservative financial vision for the state. I’ve been gone a few years, so feel free to update us on how he is doing if you so desire. I know he won re-election last year handily.
Bredesen won every single county in Tennessee for re-election. That has NEVER happened before in Tennessee history. He won my new county, Blount County, with about 63% of the vote. Blount only gave about 38% to Ford. I don’t know if GOP Jim Bryson was that awful or Phil Bredesen was that good or this was an unusually good Democratic year in TN (even though Ford didn’t win) but it was quite stunning how easily Bredesen won.
The Democratic Party in Tennessee is very conservative by national standards, but not as conservative as the Alabama Democratic Party (which controls both state houses in that state). When you couple conservative rural Middle and West Democrats together with moderate Republicans in East Tennessee, you get some interesting politics.