The GOP's "Southern Strategy"- They Pretend They Never Had One

[KittyWampus]

and their core supporters pretend the closet racism and coded bigotry
that gets displayed every election year doesn't exist.

Why don't Democrats just say matter of factly, "it's time the GOP admits it's had a racist and classist strategy since the time of segregation".

Willie Horton, anyone?

Here's a snip from Wikipedia:

In 1948, a group of Democratic congressmen, led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, split from the Democrats in reaction to an anti-segregation speech given by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, founding the States Rights Democratic or Dixiecrat Party, which ran Thurmond as its presidential candidate. The Dixiecrats, failing to deny the Democrats the presidency in 1948, soon dissolved, but the split lingered. The party's principles were revived by Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the 1964 Republican presidential candidate. Goldwater was notably more conservative than previous Republican nominees such as Dwight Eisenhower; Goldwater's opponent in the primary election, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was widely seen as representing the more moderate, Northern wing of the party. Rockefeller's defeat in the primary is seen as one turning point towards a more conservative Republican party, and the beginning of a long decline for moderate and especially liberal Republicans.

In the 1964 presidential race, Goldwater adopted an extremely conservative stance. In particular, he emphasized the issue of what he called "states' rights". As a conservative, Goldwater did not favor strong action by the federal government. For instance, though not a segregationist personally, he strongly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the grounds that, first, it was an intrusion of the federal government into the affairs of states and second, it was an interference with the rights of private persons to do business, or not, with whomever they chose. This was a popular stand in the Southern states; whether or not this was specifically a tactic designed to appeal to racist Southern white voters is a matter of debate. Regardless, the only states that Goldwater won in 1964 besides Arizona, were five Deep South states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. At this time, Senator Goldwater’s position was at odds with prominent moderate members of the Republican Party. A higher percentage of the Republican Party supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did the Democratic party. The point man in the Senate for delivering the votes to break a filibuster by 17 Democrats and one Republican was Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois.


Roots of the Southern Strategy
In the election of 1968, Richard Nixon saw the cracks in the solid south as an opportunity to tap into a group of voters that had heretofore been beyond the reach of the Republican Party. The United States was undergoing a very turbulent period in 1968. The founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and most influential member of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968. His death was followed by race riots. Martin Luther King’s policy of non-violence was being challenged by more radical blacks and by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. There were protests, often violent, against the Vietnam War. The drug subculture was causing alarm in many sectors. Nixon, with the aid of Harry Dent and then South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who had switched to the Republican party in 1964, ran on a campaign of states' rights and "law and order". Many liberals accused him of pandering to racist Southern whites, especially with regards to his "states' rights" stand.

Nixon did not win any states in the Deep South, taking only North Carolina of the states in the old Confederacy. However, it was far from a liberal resurgence. The states of the Deep South were carried by openly racist third-party candidate George Wallace; Nixon's strength outside the South enabled him to carry the general election. Thus, 1968 is sometimes cited as a realigning election.


Evolution of the Southern Strategy
As civil rights grew more accepted throughout the nation, basing a general election strategy on appeals to "states' rights" as a naked play against civil rights laws would have resulted in a national backlash. In addition, the idea of "states' rights" gained a broader meaning than simply a reference to civil rights laws, eventually encompassing federalism and a general aversion to national intervention in the culture wars. Nevertheless, in 1980, when Ronald Reagan initiated his general election campaign after accepting the Republican Party nomination, he did so with a speech in which he stated his support of states' rights. He did so at a county fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which was also known as the place where three civil rights advocates were murdered in 1964. Reagan went on to make a speech praising Jefferson Davis, the strongly pro-slavery president of the Confederacy and states' rights advocate, at Stone Mountain, Georgia, site of the founding of the modern Klan. A prominent Klan leader endorsed Reagan, but he disavowed the endorsement and moved to neutralize any negative publicity by securing the support of noted Southern civil rights activists Hosea Williams and Ralph David Abernathy.

[bigbrother05]

1. Southern strategy consisted of

getting the Dixicrats to change parties by repudiating LBJ's move toward civil rights. The folks that Condi derided for Jim Crow as a way to explain why she followed her father to become a Republican are the very people that became the guiding spirits of the Neo Republican Party. The Southern Strategy is the none too subtle 'wink wink, nudge nudge' of code words and innuendo in an attempt to maintain social/class distinction in the name of morality and family values.

[Pirate Smile]

2. The head of the RNC, Ken Mehlman came out and admitted it this

year and said it was wrong. I don't see how they can deny it anymore.

"RNC Chief to Say It Was 'Wrong' to Exploit Racial Conflict for Votes

By Mike Allen

Thursday, July 14, 2005; Page A04

It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."

"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302342.html

[KittyWampus]

4. Yes, well.... watching lots of poor black folk drown & die of starvation

and dehydration makes one wonder why Democrats don't question their sincerity.

[Pirate Smile]

5. Who is treating them like they are sincere?

[KittyWampus]

7. certainly not DU'ers... however, this seems to be a valid campaign topic

because no matter how unpopular Junior is, he isn't running for re-elecion.

And the mediawhores can spin GOP gains in 06 via Diebold.

Somehow, we have to make the GOP radioactive.

[Sandpiper]

6. A Totally hollow Mea Culpa for what can't be denied

That the GOP has been fanning the flames of racism and bigotry for the past 40 years.


We'll just see if their confession of wrong doing holds any water once the next election rolls around.

[WCGreen]

3. KEvin Phillips. the man who brought us the

Silent Majority,,,,,

Admitted several years ago that he was responsible for the Southern Strategy....