In the aftermath of the Republican victories in the midterm elections, some liberals have been asking whether they really “need” the South. In electoral terms, should progressives essentially ignore the South and concentrate on other regions in order to ensure a long-term favorable bloc?

In a recent essay in The Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky makes just that case. The frustration is perfectly understandable, but it would be a disastrous direction for progressives.

The South has always contained within it two diametrically opposed possibilities. On the one hand, it’s been a seat of political reaction. The heart of slavery; the site of the infamous “Trail of Tears,” the long march of Native Americans out of the southeast; the home of Jim Crow segregation, lynching, and extreme anti-union animus.