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Article published Nov 17, 2003
Democrats struggle to get out message
John Johnson
Los Angeles Times
GREENVILLE -- Sam
Hudson, a graying, 45-year-old bartender in this former textile town, would
never display a Confederate flag. "Not rich enough" to be a Republican, he said,
he's a Ralph Nader man who can't understand what's happened to the Democratic
Party in the South."When I was growing up, everybody was a Democrat," Hudson
said last week. "But then it seemed like Democrats were more conservative."Now
they're preoccupied "with all this negative stuff," he said, meaning the gay
rights movement. Hudson doesn't mind people living their lives the way they want
in private, but "they don't have to be out there having parades."When former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean made his controversial comment -- for which he later
apologized -- about wanting to appeal to guys with Confederate flags on their
pickups, political experts were quick to accuse the Democratic presidential
candidate of slandering the South with an outdated image straight out of
"Tobacco Road."Confederate flag wavers are "not a group that votes very much of
the time. Or if they did, they wouldn't think that a New England Democrat would
represent them," said Earl Black, a professor of political science at Rice
University in Houston and the author of several books on Southern politics.But
Dean's broader point, that the Democrats need to find a way to reach out to
working-class white voters, is on target.The truth is in the numbers. President
Bush defeated Al Gore, 57 percent to 41 percent, in South Carolina's 2000
presidential voting on his way to sweeping the South. And just this month, the
Democrats lost the governor's mansion in Kentucky for the first time in 32
years.So what went wrong for the party? And what do the Democrats have to do to
fix it?"A lot," said Joe Erwin, 47, a Levi's-wearing ad executive who is
president of the state Democratic Party. "There are so many things we have to do
a better job of."The Republicans, Erwin said, have exploited the worst fears of
whites by opposing Democratic efforts to achieve racial justice. "What changed
in this state is race," he said. "They've painted the Democrats as the black
party."Some whites in this town of 56,000 on the banks of the Reedy River do
admit, sometimes guiltily, that they are troubled by the way Democrats seem to
be courting one special interest group or another. If the issue isn't gay pride,
it's abortion rights. Interviews in bars, restaurants and shops show the
conservative shift is a result of vast cultural changes that have occurred here
in recent decades."A really important fact," Black said, "is the rise of the
middle class in the South that didn't exist 50 years ago." Back then, it was a
region of haves and have-nots, with the wealthy mill and mine owners on one side
and the sharecroppers and mine workers on the other. The Democratic Party was a
vital ally in the fight for decent wages and working conditions.A tour of
Greenville shows just how much things have changed: Once described as
"bombed-out," Main Street has become a glittery row of restaurants catering to
immigrants flocking here from Germany, France and England, among other places.
They come to work at the factories of General Electric, Michelin,
Lockheed-Martin and BMW. And BMW is endowing a graduate school of automobile
engineering at nearby Clemson University that is expected to produce 20,000
jobs.Now, instead of pickups, "you'll see more BMWs per square inch driving down
the street" than most places, Greenville Mayor Knox White said. "Our foreign
investment is the highest per capita in the U.S.," boasted White, an immigration
attorney whose father owned a small textile company here.That's not to say no
one here is struggling to make ends meet. It's just that there are not enough
low-wage earners to fuel class rage, Erwin said.According to a 2000 report by
the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore school of business, the state's
per capita income since 1970 has grown faster than the nation's. The state has
shifted from manufacturing --principally textile and apparel --to a more
diversified economy of service, trade and modern manufacturing.The economic
success in the region that includes Greenville "is in large part due to the
growing network of automotive related industry," the study said.At the same
time, 18,000 manufacturing jobs were lost across the state over the past year
--which has spurred criticism of Bush economic policies from leading state
Democrats. "I don't want horrible things to happen so the Democrats can gain,"
Erwin said. "But if this keeps up you're going to see Democrats start to
win."Although unemployment in South Carolina is up a tick or two to 7 percent,
and GE has announced a new round of layoffs from its turbine plant, he said,
there's not enough pain out there right now to threaten Bush in South Carolina
next year."This is clearly a Bush state," the Democratic Party chief admitted.
"But there is a growing frustration."Rather than rail against Bush policies,
however, people sipping beers at the Blind Horse Saloon were more inclined to
blame Northerners for their woes.A 40-year-old heating and air-conditioning
worker who gave his name only as A.J. said that finding decent housing here is
becoming hard because of all the folks from Pennsylvania and Ohio moving down to
take advantage of the relatively inexpensive prices in South Carolina."It's
getting hard to live in the South," he said.(Begin optional trim)Sharon Blake,
59, moved here from Connecticut with her husband two years ago to retire. A
onetime liberal-leaning social worker, she said she has grown more conservative
with age. Still, Blake said, she had to adjust to some of the things that make
the South unique, like the huge influence of religion here. "There's got to be
500 Baptist churches in Greenville," she said.A lot of people remember when the
local Democratic Party leader was right there in the next pew. Jerry, 56, a
cowboy-hat-wearing retiree from Honeywell, said he still votes Democratic on the
local level "because I know them."When you start talking politics to people in
coffee shops and bars, you'll still hear complaints that Republicans are for the
rich. But the passion starts to boil when talk turns to gay pride parades, civil
unions or outlawing religion in the classroom while certain Hollywood movies
depict a moral wasteland.(End optional trim)"They're not for the working man
anymore," Jerry, who refused to give his last name, said of the Democrats. To
many here, Democrats have become a party of scolding parents demanding that the
South change its nasty habits. That just makes some want to dig in their heels
more.Hudson, the bartender who voted for Nader when he ran for president in
2000, doesn't particularly like the direction the Republicans are taking the
country. He thinks the gulf between rich and poor is growing every day. But he
doesn't look to the Democrats to do something about that."Maybe we need another
party," he said.Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.By
GARY HENDERSONStaff WriterGREENVILLE -- Lake Conestee appears placid and
mysterious as Dr. David Hargett leads a group of Wofford College students toward
the water's edge. Fish flipping and insects swimming near the surface create the
only ripples on the 12-acre pond.This lake, which a hill hides from the eyes of
Braves fans who come to Greenville's Municipal Stadium, is home to great blue
herons, red-tailed hawks and wood ducks.On an afternoon walk, Hargett and the
Wofford students surprised dozens of mallards, mergansers and Canada geese.The
beauty of Conestee on this fall day belies secrets of the past it holds deep in
its murky sediments.Hargett, an environmental expert, said the history of more
than a century of Greenville's growth could be found in the muck.Only someone
like Hargett, who has tools that can bore deep into the silt, can unlock the
evidence deposited in the discharges from mills, sewer plants, foundries,
finishing plants, uncontrolled sediments, development, landfill activities and
rendering houses since the early 19th century.Federal officials have designated
Lake Conestee as a "brownfield" site because of the hundreds of industrial
discharges and other pollution in the 65-square-mile watershed over a 150-year
period."It's the poster child for what can go wrong with an urban watershed,"
Hargett said.He said the story of Conestee has been repeated in mill towns all
over the South, including along the Lawson Fork, Pacolet and Tyger rivers of
Spartanburg County."You probably wouldn't want to move much of what is behind
those dams," Hargett said.An 80-acre lake that backed upbehind the Glendale dam
after the turn of the century has long since silted in and disappeared. Only a
small pond remains.Hargett believes there's hope for reclaiming at least a part
of Lake Conestee, even at this late date.The story of what happened to Lake
Conestee begins upstream on the Reedy River and its tributaries.Hargett and the
Wofford students set out for a downstream journey at the carcass of the
burned-out U.S. Finishing plant, on Langston Creek, a large Reedy River
tributary.The finishing plant burned to the ground on Nov. 7."Twenty-five
million gallons of water were used to put out the fire," said Hargett, an
environmental consultant with Greenville's Pinnacle Group. "That washed a lot of
chemicals downstream."On Thursday, dead fish that officials said were killed by
runoff from the fire dotted the embankments of Langston Creek and the Reedy.
There were reports of dead fish all the way to where Reedy goes under
I-85.Hargett said chromium, the same substance that caused Erin Brockovich to do
battle with a California electric company, was part of the dying process in
finishing plants.U.S. Finishing and most of the early mills built in Greenville
were constructed in an area Hargett called "The Western Crescent." All went to
the banks of the Reedy River or one of its tributaries to take advantage of the
waterpower the streams provided.There are high places on the landscape where the
tops of three or four of these old, defunct mills can be see at once.Most of the
mills operated at a time well before environmental initiatives like the Clean
Water Act and the Clean Air Act were in place."Their methods were old, sloppy
and environmentally bad," Hargett said, "because that's the way they did it."The
owners of Conestee Mill built the dam that trapped Lake Conestee in 1892. It was
the first impoundment from the river's headwaters eastward.Initially, the water
covered nearly 150 acres. The lake was the center of the mill community's
culture, recreation and social activities.A series of aerial photographs taken
between 1943 and 1999 clearly illustrate how uncontrolled sediment and erosion
reduced the once large lake to about 20 acres, eight of which are wetlands."This
rapidly accelerated when Donaldson Air Force Base was built during World War II
and again when I-85 was built," Hargett said.Once Reedy River water clogged a
Conestee Mill boiler and caused an explosion. Dead fished ringed the lake's
shoreline."There were mill houses around the lake, but (mill officials) burned
them because no one would live in them," Hargett said.In the 1920s, the Reedy
River water quality grew so bad that Conestee Mills sued the City of Greenville
to stop the discharge of sewer water and other pollutants.Conestee officials won
in a lower court, but Greenville appealed the verdict to the South Carolina
Supreme Court and won.Today, the Reedy is the centerpiece in a major downtown
development on both sides of the stream. The site includes a waterfall and
shoals.Hargett's first contact with Conestee was through his business, Pinnacle
Consulting Group, which contracted to do environmental assessments of the lake
and its immediate environs.The $100,000 it cost to do the work came from an
award made to the state by Colonial Pipeline, after a break in June 1996 dumped
1.2 million gallons of oil into the Reedy downstream from the Conestee.In all,
Colonial paid out $6 million to clean up 23 miles of Reedy River shoreline.The
spill was the most catastrophic environmental disaster in the state's
history.Believing there was hope for Conestee's reclamation, Hargett became the
architect of a project to set up a non-profit corporation that would undertake
the project."The work that the Conestee Foundation has recognized is a 20- to
30-year project, which is probably ahead of schedule in year five," Hargett
said."Having completed the lake assessment, it is now time to shift to the
development of the green space, recreational and educational focus of the
foundation's vision."Conestee Foundation purchased the 150-acre footprint that
was the original lake. Hargett said they'd like to acquire another 42 acres, but
the high cost of land in the area prevents it.While the water in Conestee would
not be safe to drink, Hargett said the beauty of the surrounding area would be
ideal for a regional park. He said there is abundant wildlife, especially in
areas that were once part of the lake, but have now reforested.Hargett said the
area is safe for humans, so long as the silt is undisturbed. Years of sediment
have buried some of the worst contaminants at the deepest levels.Estimates to
completely reclaim the lake top $50 million.The foundation's major vision is to
create an environmental learning center where Upstate school children of all
ages from around the Upstate could come for watershed studies.Already Wofford
College, Furman University, Greenville Technical College and Clemson University
use Conestee in both bachelor and graduate studies programs.Jason McElveen of
Sumter, a member of the Nature and Culture of Water class from Wofford, said
being at the lake is better than staying on campus."In the classroom, we talk
about it," said McElveen, 18. "Out here, you get to see it up close, and it's
relevant."This is the second year the Spartanburg school has taken students to
Conestee."We don't really think about (what we've seen) until we get back and
see our field journals," said Meg Morrison, an 18-year-old Wofford freshman from
Spartanburg."Then we realize how things 10 or 15 miles upstream affect things
down here."Gary Henderson can be reached at 562-7230 or
gary.henderson@shj.com