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Still, the presidential attentions lavished on the South are being furiously emulated by the Democrats. For the first time in almost a decade, Democratic presidential aspirants are courting the South. Edmund Muskie, Birch Bayh; Henry Jackson and Hubert Humphrey have recently called on Carter to discuss the lay of the votes in '72. And Carter and his colleagues in the other Southern states are assembling a caucus to be reckoned with at convention time.
As ever in the background lurks George Wallace. Even George has caught the new spirit of the South to the extent that he has toned down his racial rhetoric. But his presence still serves to hold national politicians of both parties to the historic and fundamental Southern notion of populism: defending the little man, attacking the Establishment.
By far the most important factor in the emerging moderation is economic.
Successful industrialization has helped to ease the classic white fear: the loss of an already marginal existence to black competition. Says Clotfelter: "In prosperity, you don't need scapegoats. You don't have to blame or apologize for giving blacks jobs if you have enough jobs to go around." The immigration of a new managerial class and the formation of strong business leadership have altered the state's politics further.
The landed gentry from the antebellum mansions who had so long manipulated the state's agrarian economy have yielded to commercial captains from suburban split-levels. Pickpocket politics no longer sets poor white against poor black for scarce jobs; rather it works in a growing job market to depress wages and make union organizing difficult. Growth has been slowed some what by the recession, but a firm federal floor under the Southern economy has so far protected the region from wide fluctuations. Military payrolls and farm subsidies—economic buffers care fully cultivated by the South's high-seniority senators and congressmen—have cushioned the recession's impact.
Atlanta: Too Busy to Hate