Many on this blog as of late, mostly Hillary supporters, have been making the argument that it is folly for Democrats to campaign in the south, because winning southern voters is a lost cause for progressives.  I have also seen it argued that the south votes solidly Republican because of race.  I think both arguments are oversimplifications and counterproductive.
    The idea that the south is a lost cause for Democrats due to racial discrimination flies in the face of our electoral history.  Every time the Democrats have made a serious attempt at winning southern votes it has paid off electorally, but the most important step in this process is nominating someone who can communicate with southerners.
    In 1976, when we nominated Jimmy Carter, who is CLEARLY a liberal progressive (and no racist I might add), we carried every Southern state save Virginia.  This involved no selling out of our core principles or running to the middle of the road, it simply involved nominating a candidate who could connect with southern voters.  Even in 1980, when Carter had been beset by the oil crisis, the hostage crisis, etc etc, and Reagan swept the country, Carter still carried Georgia and West Virginia.
    In 1992, we ran Bill Clinton, also a solid southern communicator.  We won West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia.  In 96, he carried all of those except Georgia and even won Florida over...and then comes 2000 and Gore lost every one of those states due to using the 20 state strategy.

In 1968 Robert Kennedy waged a war for the soul of America. And he awakened the souls of those who listened.  He walked in the streets of both metropolis and the ghetto, and everywhere he went crowds of people reached to touch him.  He gave himself to the people, sometimes shaking hands until his own were bloody from being scratched by fingernails.  Kennedy did something rarely seen in politics, he went over the heads of the party bosses and Washington insiders, and took his message directly to the people.  
    He did things more "prudent" politicians wouldn't.  He went to Alabama to deliver a speech on racial equality the same year that Ronald Reagan spoke in neighboring Mississippi on behalf of "states rights". When speaking at University of Indiana Medical School,   a heckler asked where he would get the money for his proposed health care plan, Kennedy retorted ,"From you".  Then added "Let me say something about the tone of these questions.  I look around this room and I don't see many black faces that will become doctors...Part of a civilized society is to let people go to medical school who come from ghettos...You are the privaleged ones...It's our society, not just our government, that spends twice as much on pets as on the poverty program.  It's the poor who carry the burden in Vietnam.  You sit here as white medical students, while black people carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam."
        Bobby didn't have time for bullshit.  He had a country to save.  In photos from this campaign one can see the gravity of his concern burned into his face.