ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO, I sat in my room and stared at my Georgia absentee voter's kit wondering what to do. Not knowing anything about the Democratic candidates--and not having enough time to run to any Institute of Politics forums or to sift through back issues of news magazines--I didn't have the slightest idea how to mark my ballot.

So I called my mom.

Although we disagree about a lot of things, I have to admit that my mother's political convictions are pretty dependable. Her ideas about policy and vision come directly from experience "in the trenches": she has spent over 10 years working as a crisis intervention social worker trying to salvage the lives of inner city families. She's seen the projects, the charity wards, the housing projects, and the board meetings. She knows what's out there.

Despite all of her connections with liberal social concerns, however, my mom doesn't always vote for the most "liberal" candidate. She thinks things through, from all sides.

So I called home. And, true to form, she took me by surprise.

She said she was thinking about voting for Bush.

"WHY?" I ASKED, honestly confused. I had always heard her complain about Reagan's and Bush's mismanagement of social programs.

"Because of Buchanan," she answered. "He's really scary."

"Oh," I said.

Now I was really confused. I knew enough about Buchanan's politics to know I couldn't support him (I have watched one too many "McLaughlin Group" shows). But deceived by this rarefied political atmosphere that we all call home--I had thought that nobody else would really take him seriously either.

Sure, he had done well in New Hampshire, but like many of my friends, I had viewed his coup as a negative vote against Bush--"the best thing the Democrats have going for them..." and all that. It just didn't seem possible to me that he could inspire a real groundswell of populist support.

But, as my mom knows, things are never that simple. In states throughout the South, Buchanan is relishing in an outrageous, showman-like campaign. He bases his strategy on a brand of "protest" aimed at white Southern Democrats who, like their counterparts here in the Northeast, are facing unemployment and uncertainty in the wake of Bush's "broken promises."

Just like the rest of the country, the South needs new ideas and initiatives to solve the racial, economic, and social problems that are accompanying its rapid growth and "modernization."

But no one likes to work too hard and Buchanan knows it. In a region known, in the first place, for its conservatism, Buchanan is running on the time-tested platform of stasis. He is taking his political cues from a distinctly 1960s brand of segregationist politician--from men like George Wallace and Lester Maddox. Buchanan's message throws Southerners back some 30 years. And alarmingly, he is coming through loud and clear.

HERE ARE SOME scenes from Buchanan's Southern campaign: