Humphrey, McGovern, and Mondale all came out of the Farmer Labor Democrate party in the upper great plains. Humphrey & McGovern were born and raised in towns about 70 miles apart, which is very close for the wide open Great Plain States.
The land of Lake Woebegon : Demographically, the upper great plains states (Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin) have a higher proportion of Scandanavians and Central Europeans that the rest of the US, and skew more Catholic and Luthern.
The Farmer-Labor Democrates, which generally pretty close to mainstream Democratic thought, have a number of ideas, posistions, and stylist items which are seen a more socialist by much of the US.
Think of McGovern's guaranteed minimum income to get a sense of the sort of ideas that might play well in some places, but not others.
So the Democrates have gone to the Farmer-Labor well three times, and gotten some of the biggest electoral failures - McGovern, Mondale.
This does not mean a Democrate from outside the South can't win - you could get one from Ohio, New Jersey, New York - or even California....
But Massachuchets Liberal ? |
