This week, Alabama Congressman Bobby Bright aired a new television ad reminding everyone of the derangement that comes with being a Democrat in Alabama. In the clip, titled “Just Bobby,” the Democratic representative from the Wiregrass pledges not to vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House if he is re-elected.

This must be the sort of thing candidates do when they belong to a political party that is extremely unpopular in their districts, but lack the courage to separate themselves from that party.

The ad opens with Bright saying, “I’ve heard my constituents, and they don’t want a liberal running the House. They want a conservative.” You don’t say.

Unfortunately for Bright’s constituents, he did vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House after the 2008 elections, joining all of his 254 Democratic counterparts.

Now that Pelosi is seen as the leader of the sinking Democratic majority, though, Bright wants to separate himself from the San Francisco liberal. As if he didn’t know what he was voting for two years ago. This is the woman, after all, who opposed the Gulf War of 1991 because of “environmental concerns.”

Nevertheless, Nancy Pelosi is a leader in the Democratic Party. As such, she helps shape the party’s agenda, and oversees the House of Representatives, which it controls. If Bright honestly believes the leader of his party’s House caucus is so out of touch with his constituents, he should join the other caucus.

There is no doubt that Nancy Pelosi is, in fact, much more liberal than Bobby Bright. That is why we have two political parties: one for liberals and one for conservatives. If Bright wants to be the conservative representative he is campaigning as, then he should join the Republican Party.

Yet, for some unknown reason, Bright continues to cling to his Democratic affiliation.

Democratic Lt. Governor Jim Folsom is using a similar trick, introducing himself as “the same ole country boy.”

In fact, this is the same tactic employed by most Democratic candidates in Alabama, whether they’re running for school board or Congress.

Alabama has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since 1964. Alabama has chosen a Republican governor in five of the last six gubernatorial elections.

Seeing the political sands shift beneath them, state Democrats have responded by trying to distinguish themselves from their party.

And in truth, most Alabama Democrats are much more conservative than their national leaders.

So why do they continue to affiliate with a national party led by Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi? Part of the answer, of course, is that Alabama’s gambling-union machine runs the state Democratic Party and funnels money to a lot of these candidates.

Still, no matter how much they insist they are nothing like that unpopular trio, the truth is that Democrats in Alabama, just like Democrats in every other state, are part of a political apparatus led by some of the most liberal leaders in American history.

Worse, they empower the national Democrats. Some voters look at their local leaders and think, “Democrats aren’t just the party of Obama and Pelosi, they’ve got Bobby Bright and Jim Folsom.” The result is a Democratic Party that can claim to have widespread support and inclusiveness, when in reality it has neither.

If Bobby Bright won’t vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker, who will he vote for? John Boehner, the House Republican Leader? If so, why not just declare himself a Republican?

Or will Bright just not vote? Do his constituents want a congressman who takes no stand on who the next House Speaker will be?

These aren’t the good ole days when conservative (if not racist) Democrats dominated the South and Democratic candidates could get away with being Democrats because, well, everybody else was.

Over the past two years, President Obama and Nancy Pelosi have drawn clear lines between those who think an ever-more complex and intertwined society justifies a more proactive government and those who think it makes government more unnecessary.

For offices of national significance, like Congress, sending people who align themselves with Obama and his party will only help them keep control of Congress and its agenda. Regardless of how they campaign here, the result will be the same in Washington, D.C. At best, they’ll just find another, slightly less unpopular liberal to be Speaker.