TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2026
Except in that one district: These Alabama voters today!
As is the perfect right of such citizens, the state's voters haven't sent a white Democrat to the House of Representatives since they elected two (2) such candidates in the congressional elections of November 2008.
It was a bad year for the GOP nationwide, with President George W. Bush flagging in popularity and Candidate Obama winning the White House. In Alabama, this miracle alignment emerged from the state's seven congressional districts—or at least, so it seemed at the time:
Alabama House delegation, January 2009
District 1: Jo Bonner (R)
District 2: Bobby Bright (D)
District 3: Mike Rogers (R)
District 4: Robert Aderholt (R)
District 5: Parker Griffith (D)
District 6: Spencer Bachus (R)
District 7: Artur Davis (D)
Reps. Bright and Griffith had squeaked out narrow wins, each in his first run for the House. In a major outlier, each was a white Democrat!
Alabama sent two such Democrats to the House in January 2009, though only one would return!
Each man served only one term in the House before being replaced by a Republican. In fact, there those Alabama white Democrats went again, with their incessant party-switching:
Sure enough! Rep. Grittith switched his party alignment from D to R in December 2009. Despite his party switch, he was defeated the next year in the Republican primary by someone who was even more Republican.
Rep. Griffith party-switched, like Senator Shelby before him (see yesterday's report). By way of contrast, Rep. Bright managed to make it through his entire two-year term as a Democrat.
Needless to say, he was a conservative Democrat (as was his perfect right). Indeed, according to the leading authority, "his voting record indicated that he was the most conservative member of the House Democratic Caucus" during his one term in the House.
Given the way the partisan alignment was hardening, even that wasn't good enough! He was defeated when he sought re-election, and he eventually tried a bit of party-switching himself!
Bobby Bright
Bobby Neal Bright Sr. (born July 21, 1952) is an American retired lawyer, farmer, and former politician who served as a U.S. representative and was previously the three-term mayor of Montgomery, Alabama. He served from 2009 to 2011 as the Representative from Alabama's 2nd congressional district. His 2008 campaign ran on the message of "America First," and his voting record indicated that he was the most conservative member of the House Democratic Caucus in the 111th Congress...
... In November 2010, he was defeated for a second term in the House of Representatives by Republican nominee Martha Roby, a then-Montgomery City Council member. In 2018, Bright attempted to run for his old House seat as a Republican, but was defeated by Roby in a runoff.
As of now, Bright stands as the last white Democrat from Alabama to be elected to serve in the House. Eventually, he tried a party switch too. This is all part of the way "the solid South," across various states, switched from solid D over to solid R—though we're speaking here of the white solid South, and of white Alabama.
There are, of course, white Democrats in Alabama, but Democrats are significantly outnumbered in the state. To cite just one example:
In that aforementioned bad year for Republicans nationwide, Candidate McCain defeated Candidate Obama in Alabama by more than 21 points, 60.3% to 38.7%.
In 2020, Candidate Biden lost the state by more than 25 points (62.0% - 36.6%). In 2024, Candidate Trump won Alabama by a bit more than thirty points!
This is no state for Democratic candidates on a statewide basis. That said, the state has continued to send one Democrat to the House of Representatives and, since 2011, that lone Democrat has been Rep. Terri Sewell.
As we noted yesterday, Sewell is thoroughly sharp. That said, could she get elected to the Senate from her home state? Barring the nomination of a stunningly flawed Republican candidate, she almost surely could not.
(Barring the nomination of some such Republican candidate, neither could a white Democrat.)
Now for the rest of the story:
Alabama's population is roughly one third Black. While white Alabama is heavily (though not wholly) Republican, Black Alabama is heavily (though not wholly) Democratic.
Rep. Sewell represents Alabama's 7th congressional district. The district is majority Black and, largely for that reason, is scored as D+13 by the Cook Political Report.
Rep. Sewell's district has been in the news of late as our struggling nation tries to decide how to deal with the continuing aftermath of the brutal racial history our ancestors unwisely created. The district was created to be majority Black in the congressional redistricting which followed the 1990 census.
Why did the Republican Party agree to create such districts at that point in time? What was the legal rationale behind the creation of these "opportunity districts?"
(We're employing the language of Justice Sotomayor.)
Questions have arisen in the aftermath of recent Supreme Court decisions:
What should Black voters do in the wake of those decisions—decisions which have allowed the dismantling of some or all of these majority Black districts? What should the full sweep of Blue America do?
What should Blue Americans think and say about those recent decisions? What's the next step in the redistricting wars for the endangered Democratic Party?
The political and judicial histories here are complicated, complex. This is all part of the tragic backwash of the horrific racial history which somehow unfolded across the centuries despite our exceptionalism.
What should decent people decide to do at this point in time? Decent people Black and white, but also Red and Blue?
Last Wednesday, Rep. Sewell was shown on tape at the start of a segment of Deadline: White House. To watch the entire segment, you can start by clicking here.
Rep. Sewell is as sharp as anyone ever needs to be. We strongly agree with one thing she said. Another thing, perhaps not so much.
“Decent people Black and white, but also Red and Blue”
ReplyDeleteThe number of decent “Reds” is rapidly dwindling. The sooner Somerby recognizes this, the better.
A good Republican state! https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/worst-states-to-live-in
ReplyDelete"In fact, there those Alabama white Democrats went again, with their incessant party-switching;"
ReplyDeleteThe obsession with white people in this country, is why it's a shit hole..
Somerby goes to great lengths to avoid the obvious explanation. It’s almost as if it must just be nature taking its course when these white democrats flipped.
Delete“Why did the Republican Party agree to create such districts at that point in time?”
ReplyDeleteCan’t wait for Somerby’s answer to this one. We shall see.
While he’s at it, maybe try to explain why both the Alabama House and Senate flipped to Republican in 2010.
In 2006, the Alabama house sat at 62 Democrats and 43 Republicans. In 2010 it went to 66 Republicans and 39 Democrats.
In 2006, the Alabama Senate sat at 23 Democrats and 12 Republicans. In 2010 the numbers were 22 Republicans and 12 Democrats.
Did something happen between 2006 and 2010 to cause this almost mirror image flip in Alabama?
Just because black Americans suffered from deliberate, pernicious, organized and legalized racism for 300 years is no reason not to find majority black districts are racist and white voters were discriminated against in Louisiana by having to be part of a majority black district, even though those white voters suffered no abridgment of their right to vote.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is sarcasm. Try it with other minorities. Jews suffered from deliberate, pernicious, organized and legalized antisemitism for 300 years. Asians suffered from severe discrimination in the US for 200 years. Should today's American Asians and Jews be given special privileges and benefits?
DeleteDid those white voters in Louisiana suffer abridgment in their right to vote by being in a black majority district? Start from there. Then ask yourself if Asians or Jews were legally enslaved in this country for 200 years, having been forcefully brought over here for the purpose of being slaves, and a civil war was fought to prevent the spread of slavery? Or was that mainly black people?
DeleteAlso, ask yourself if the majority minority districts in this country are solely black majority minority districts? The answer is of course no.
And while you’re at it, DiC, ask yourself who the targets were of Jim Crow in the American South.
DeleteOn average, Asians and Jews do at least as well economically as Whites.
DeleteThe average Black family has 8-15 cents for every dollar the average White family has.
Duh.
Trolls like David will tell you it’s because Blacks are inferior, bred in the bone.
Somerby engages in a great deal of verbiage to simply agree with the Callais decision, and exhort liberals to quit bitching about it.
ReplyDelete“the tragic backwash of the horrific racial history which somehow unfolded across the centuries”
ReplyDeleteYes, and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that doing anything at all to try to level the playing field would be racist. And if racists have learned anything, it’s that racism is bad.
Trying to level the playing field by imposing a different tilted playing field is a tricky business. How about trying to level the playing field by simply leveling the playing field.
DeleteHow do you “level the playing field” when it was tilted against blacks for 300 years? That 300 year history of racism and discrimination leaves a legacy that cannot be erased simply by declaring racism is over.
DeleteMaking it legal for a white majority to barber the district boundaries in their own favor isn't "levelling" anything.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteI absolutely love the idea of all races starting with zero.
Then agin, I'm one of those people who want a merit-based society.
#100percentestatetaxrate
I agree with 11:58 "That 300 year history of racism and discrimination leaves a legacy that cannot be erased simply by declaring racism is over." Nevertheless, I oppose tilting the playing field the other way in an effort to somehow offset the past. Preferences tend to become endless. They discourage hiring and promoting the most competent people. They encourage racial animosity. They create a feeling of entitlement. The encourage thinking of people as cells within an ethnic group, rather than individual human beings.
DeleteThe United States did make enormous efforts to offset the effects of 300 years of slavery and Jim Crow. Those efforts had considerable success. Being old helps me appreciate the enormity of the
improvement. Even in my early adulthood, a black doctor or lawyer was extremely rare. A president or VP was entirely unthinkable.
Speaking for myself, I started with a company that prohibited Jewish corporate officers as late as the early 1960's. I would not want to be given a special legal offset. I'm satisfied that when my time came, this barrier no longer existed.
@12:26 - races don't start careers. People start careers. And, there's no way at all to equalize things between different people. Tiger Woods' athletic ability gives him an advantage over me. How could that difference be equalized? It can't be. But, the attempt to do so can cause all kinds of harm.
DeleteBlack majority districts cause harm?
DeleteI would not want to be given a special legal offset
DeleteYou fucking were given special legal offset, you fucking imbecile.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark U.S. labor and civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, it effectively dismantled legal segregation.
David in Cal,
DeleteRaces aren't against merit-based societies. People who are politically Conservative are against merit-based societies.
Unfortunately, I have as much certifiable proof it's because they know they can't compete on a level playing field, as they have of rigged elections.
Tiger Woods was trained in golf from early childhood by his father, an excellent golfer (working as a caddy) who attempted to play pro golf but was stymied by racism himself. Athletic ability is part of it, but the rest is hard work, sustained effort, and opportunities (open doors).
DeleteI do not understand why Tiger Woods spends any time at all with Donald Trump, but they both have daddy issues and drug addictions and pursue trophy wives, so perhaps they have more in common than is obvious. It is obvious why Trump sucks up to Tiger.
This the same post as yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSomerby is relishing in slowly rolling out his racism.
DeleteWhereas your stupidity is coming fast and furious.
DeleteWhat’s racist is having black majority districts. What’s not racist is diluting black voters in order to favor white voters.
DeleteSpot on 1:15.
DeleteThis is the racism that Somerby expresses.
So LBJ predicted the Democrats had lost the south for a generation after the Democratic Party enacted the civil rights act and the voting rights act. His timeframe was off, unfortunately. But I wonder what is the good faith explanation for the mass exodus of southerners from the Democratic Party? “They weren’t racist; they just had sincere and innocent intellectual disagreements with dismantling Jim Crow?”
ReplyDeleteDespite what people who don't do their own research think, paying reparations for slavery and Jim Crow laws to black people punishes no one.
ReplyDeleteIt is bizarre the way Somerby keeps repeating that Sewell is sharp. It is almost as if he thinks we will not believe he is racist if he can find one black woman to overpraise, over and over.
ReplyDelete"Between 1910 and 1970, roughly 6 million Black Americans left the rural South for the North and West during the The Great Migration. This represented about 50% of the total Black American population uprooting their lives to escape racial violence and the restrictive Jim Crow laws of the South.In 1900, roughly 90% of all Black Americans lived in the Southern states. By 1970, that number had plummeted to just 47%, with millions relocating to major industrial and urban areas in the North, Midwest, and West Coast."
Think about who was left behind. Those people tethered to the land (tenant farmers and sharecroppers, operating their own businesses in black communities, the poor and the elderly, and civil rights leaders committed to fighting Jim Crow.
"A large-scale return of Black Americans to the Southern United States has been underway for decades. Often referred to as the New Great Migration or Reverse Great Migration, this demographic shift reversed a 35-year trend of out-migration that peaked during the 20th century."
This reverse migration has been to major Southern urban areas such as Atlantic, Houston, Charlotte and North Carolina's Research Triangle.
If the Republicans continue to try to reimpose Jim Crow on black people outside those urban areas, it may result in further demographic shifts that will make red areas redder and former red urban areas in the South bluer. We are already seeing some of that with the changes in TX and GA. This idea that black votes can be simply redistricted out of existence is wrong because black people can and do take action when that occurs.
I find it sad that the South, which was considered more habitable for blacks after civil rights gains will now be considered undesirable again, but the loss of workers and families in places like AL will be the gain of other areas where there are more opportunities.
"It is bizarre the way Somerby keeps repeating that Sewell is sharp. It is almost as if he thinks we will not believe he is racist if he can find one black woman to overpraise, over and over."
DeleteI see. If Somerby criticizes a black woman, it proves he is racist and sexist. If he praises a black woman, it proves he is racist and sexist. Got it.
Shh! Don’t talk about Jim Crow 2.0, blacks. There will still be a bunch of blacks left in Congress, even if there aren’t any more in the south after this.
DeleteIt is wild how dumb this Dogface George character is, but on brand anyways.
Delete"It is almost as if he thinks we will not believe he is racist if he can find one black woman to overpraise, over and over."
DeleteIt is almost as if what you wrote makes sense.
I hear from DiC that silent Clarence Thomas is an awesome, excellent, amazing black Supreme Court justice.
DeleteHe didn't praise Sewell. He called her sharp, over and over. Where is the praise in that? Why does he do that?
Delete"It is wild how dumb this Dogface George character is"
DeleteYour intelligence, on the other hand, seems to be displayed in your wit.
On brand, always
DeleteTiedrich on the Knicks game:
ReplyDelete"nobody wanted a broken-inside egomaniac shutting down one of midtown Manhattan’s busiest districts for a day and a night, just so he could fall asleep during a championship basketball game.
Subscribed
so, if nobody wanted this, then why did it happen?
it happened for the same reason that Donny used to barge in on half-naked teenagers in the dressing room of the Miss Teen USA pageant — because he can, and because he’s a malignant toad who gets off on being the hugest asshole imaginable.
well, guess what: New Yorkers are not okay with any of that shit at all, and they reacted to Donny’s unwanted presence in the most New York way ever — they cordially invited Dear Leader to fuck himself sideways. big, strong New Yorkers, their biceps rippling in the midday sun, tears streaming down their cheeks, booed Donny mercilessly. they booed him like few thought possible — maybe even the greatest boos of all time."
Seriously, if no one wants what is happening, what are we doing to change things? Obviously the right, all those Republicans, want this shit. But what about the rest of us? Our wishes matter too and we are mad enough to vote against Trump's stooges and anyone who hasn't yet made it clear to voters that Trump's behavior is unacceptable, an embarrassment to our nation, NOT the way we want the country to be governed.
Calling him an asshole cuts through the bullshit of worrying over diagnoses of mental illness. And it happens to be true.
Delete“the Trump family has made $2.3 billion from crypto with little-to-no downside risk, while other investors have lost $2.3 billion, including paper losses, as of the end of April.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/investigations/parsing-trumps-crypto-profits-investors-losses-2026-06-09/
Personally, I think we should investigate Hunter Biden’s art sales.
For every 10,000 blacks, 153 violent crimes are committed by a black person each year against a white person.
ReplyDeleteThe same figure for violent crimes committed by whites against a black person: 3.4.
A black person is 50-times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white person than for a white person to commit a violent crime against a black person.
“the poverty rate for Black Americans stands at 18.4%, while the rate for non-Hispanic White Americans is 7.6%”
DeleteSuch is the tragic backwash of the horrific racial history which somehow unfolded across the centuries.
Government reparations will bring the poverty and violent crime rate down dramatically.
DeleteOnly the lack of political will keeps it from happening.
There are also other potential approaches to solve the problem, but I’ve yet to see the GOP go-to policy of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to have had any effect.
DeleteNo one believes history accounts for the differences including you. Third world culture.
DeleteTo be fair, Somerby was directing his post today at decent people who detect a tragic backwash. But thanks for your input, 2:00pm.
Delete1:29. They are still looking for the successor to Charlie Kirk. If you can get on board with venting about black female Olympic gymnasts, and black female Supreme Court justices with magna cum laude Ivy League law degrees, you can filll out an application. That is , if you don’t have a college degree.
DeleteThe vast majority of crimes are committed by Whites, it is not even close.
DeleteHistorically Whites (particularly religious Whites) have committed the worst atrocities against fellow humans, it is not even close.
The crime rate of native born citizens is vastly higher than for immigrants.
White collar crime is far more damaging to our society than any other category.
At the end of Biden's term crime rates were hitting 50 year lows.
Stop spreading Elon's bullshit. These stats are taken from a cheapass meme Musk reposted on X.
DeleteHow many crimes are committed by white people against other white people? How many criminals are multiple offenders? Also, which racist bullshit web site is your source? You're playing stupid games with bogus numbers.
ReplyDeleteQuaker - blacks are disproportionately crime victims, and black perps are most of the problem. Our dishonest media give very attention to black on black crime, thus creating a false impression.
DeleteOur media don't think of themselves as racist, but this is a policy that harms black Americans. Hiding the problem of black on black crime deters efforts to fix the problem.
DeleteThey must not be hiding it too hard, your racist ass obsesses over it. Not white on white crime though
DeleteI suspect there probably is a high level of black on white hatred. I suppose some is justifiable and some is inculcated. A black lawyer posted this comment:
DeleteI practice law in Colin County Texas. Karmelo Anthony will be convicted and sentenced to life in prison as he should.
He murdered that boy because he was raised to hate white people, and to view himself as a victim in every situation, it’s a culture thing.
As I said, dickhead, you racist bastard, it’s an obsession with you.
DeleteQuoting a black source is racist? There are some white liberals who consider it their job their job to tell blacks what they should think and say.
DeleteThe Venn diagram of zionists and racists is a single circle.
Delete10:12. Name one.
DeletePer ADL statistics, from 2010-2021 Black on White hate crimes comprised a whopping 17.4% of all racially motivated hate crimes in the US. But keep feeding us your racist anecdotes, indicating that you are either innumerate or bigoted or both.
DeleteDuring the trial, both defense and prosecuting attorneys argued that the killing was not race based, but you dredge up the comment of an unnamed “black lawyer” to support the bigoted notion that Anthony hated whites and committed a race based crime. Go ahead and show us where Karmelo Anthony was charged with a hate crime, which carries weight upon his sentencing. You live in a self imposed loop of bigotry that is reinforced by seeking out shit websites that allow you to feel better about yourself and your racism.
Delete"...blacks are disproportionately crime victims, and black perps are most of the problem."
DeleteGosh. Someone should do something.
“Some white liberals who consider it their jobs to tell blacks what to think.” Bullshit as usual. Thinking on their own, a whopping 12% of blacks voted for Trump last election. And Republicans revel in that.
DeleteDiC says: "...blacks are disproportionately crime victims,"
ReplyDeleteThat really depends on what you mean by "disproportionate." According to the report that provided the basis for Nonny @1:29's statistical malpractice, 1.46% of white people were victims of violent crime in 2024. For black people, the victimization rate was a "disproportionate" 1.55%.
You could look it up. https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/cv24.pdf
According to this very same DOJ report, if a white person is victim of a violent crime, the probability that the offender is identified as black is just 1 in 7. How does that square with his bullshit "50 times more likely" claim?
DeleteThe DOJ does not use Charlie Kirk math.
Delete