A Must Read Column

E.J Dionne redirects our mournful southerly gaze and reminds us that for every action (like the complete loss of the Solid South by the Dems to the Reps) there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The Rise of the Lincoln Democrats
By E. J. Dionne Jr.Tuesday, September 5, 2006;

PHILADELPHIA -- The North will rise again.

If Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November, that inversion of an old slogan is likely to be a central factor in their victory.

Although no one anticipates a Democratic sweep in November on the order of the Republicans' 1994 triumph, the forces that were at work 12 years ago are in play this year -- but in reverse.

One key to the Republican takeover of the House under Newt Gingrich was the completion of a long-term realignment to the GOP in the South. White Southerners started supporting Republican presidential candidates in large numbers as long ago as 1952, but many of them did not bring their congressional voting habits in line with their presidential votes until 1992 and, with a vengeance, 1994.

But a quiet counter-realignment has been under way in the Northeast and Midwest. Post political writer Dan Balz was one of the first to notice after Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection that longtime Republican suburban bastions in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York and New Jersey were moving the Democrats' way.

Read the Rest Here.