GOP Southern Strategy Rises Again

[Flopper]

The following states have Democrat majorities in both houses their state legislatures:

Alabama
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina


States with split houses split houses:

Kentucky


These states have Republican majorities in both houses:

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Tennessee

Source

Tell me again how the south is solidly Republican?

The South strongly supports Republicans in federal elections not necessary state elections. The animosity of the old South was directed at the federal government not the state government. As a consequence the South votes for Republican Presidential candidate over 75% of the time. Southern Republicans out number Southern Democrats in the House. In the Senate, Southern Republicans out number their Democrat counterparts 2 to 1.

 

[WillowTree]

you racist pigs of the demonRats persuasion is gonna have to deal with losing cause losing you izz.

 

[NYcarbineer]

avater, lonestar, and cali girl come in with the predictable ad hominem... shocking

I don't understand why they bother doing that.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Shucks, Rachel's calling the GOP racists. Who would have expected that?

She is clearly a brilliant analyst of the issues.

Clearly. And the results prove how correct she is. The Republican Party is 90% white. Many members consider themselves "Confederate Republicans" and play at "war reenactments" wearing southern uniforms.

Republicans are so riled up at the "black" man in the "White" House. And why is that?

They insist he raised taxes, only he didn't.

The insist he has proposed legislation to limit gun rights, even though he expanded gun rights.

They insist he is a Marxist and a Communist, even though it was Republicans who worked to send millions of American jobs to Communist China from 2001 to 2008.

They insist Obama wants America to lose in Afghanistan even though he has tripled the number of troops there.

They insist Obama wants to nationalize the banks. That has proved false.

By the way, the CBO says the health care bill will save America 150 billion over the next ten years.

Add all the racist pictures, watermelon patch, Obama food stamps with chicken and watermelon, and on and on.

Maddow is not only 100% correct, but the results are obvious, even to that Republican base their leaders call "hicky".

I been saying this a long time. The GOP found out it could win elections even if it only got 10% of the black vote, and they have acted accordingly ever since.

 

[NYcarbineer]

The following states have Democrat majorities in both houses their state legislatures:

Alabama
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina


States with split houses split houses:

Kentucky


These states have Republican majorities in both houses:

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Tennessee

Source

Tell me again how the south is solidly Republican?

Who claimed that? The point is the strategy, not the outcome.

And you left out Texas.

 

[Moon]

The following states have Democrat majorities in both houses their state legislatures:

Alabama
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina


States with split houses split houses:

Kentucky


These states have Republican majorities in both houses:

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Tennessee

Source

Tell me again how the south is solidly Republican?

Who claimed that? The point is the strategy, not the outcome.

And you left out Texas.

Texas isn't part of what's traditionally called the south. Since most of the southern states have democrat majorities, I'd say the "strategy" is someone's fictionalized creation, rather than fact. Why make an issue of federal elections when the Republicans can't even get majorities in the state legislatures?

 

[tinydancer]

Upon passage of the Civil Rights Act, Lyndon Johnson commenting to Bill Moyers said, "I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.” It appears he was absolutely correct. In the 44 years since the Civil Rights Act, the South has voted for Republican presidential candidates 77% of time. Had it not been for the increased registration of Black voters in the South and favorite sons, Cartier and Clinton, the vote would surely have been close to 100% Republican.

In the 44 years prior to the Civil Rights Act, the South voted for Republicans presidential candidates 11% of the time.

To say that race is not a major reason for Republican dominance in the South is just not so. If you can find a Klan member in the South, you no doubt have found a Republican vote.
Solid South - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Considering the Democrats created the KKK, that's a very interesting viewpoint you have.

And if you want to think South and KKK, you should pause and reflect on the life and times of Senator KKK Byrd.

How many of those Democrats who created the KKK are still alive, Tinydancer? And if they were, how many of them would support the modern Democrat Party?

Interesting question, since the KKK has morphed. I think you would find that the paltry number of existing so called KKK members aren't voting for either party.

Both Democrats and Republicans would repulse them.

And that in itself is a major victory for both liberals and conservatives that we have pushed and held groups like the KKK to the fringe and that we blatantly and unapologetically loathe their existence.

Zero tolerance of organizations such as Neo Nazis and the KKK has probably been one of our biggest achievements in the past few decades.

 

[Meister]

Only an idiot would listen to Maddow.

What makes one an idiot is not listening to Maddow, it's the repeating of Maddow that makes one an idiot.

 

[tinydancer]

This boogeyman of the Southern Strategy as being based on race and racial hatred has been busted in a book called "The End of Southern Exceptionalism: Class, Race and Partisan Change in the Post War South".

From a New York Times article:

The Myth of ‘the Southern Strategy’

By CLAY RISEN
Published: December 10, 2006

Everyone knows that race has long played a decisive role in Southern electoral politics. From the end of Reconstruction until the beginning of the civil rights era, the story goes, the national Democratic Party made room for segregationist members — and as a result dominated the South. But in the 50s and 60s, Democrats embraced the civil rights movement, costing them the white Southern vote. Meanwhile, the Republican Party successfully wooed disaffected white racists with a “Southern strategy” that championed “states’ rights.”



It’s an easy story to believe, but this year two political scientists called it into question. In their book The End of Southern Exceptionalism: Class, Race, and Partisan Change in the Postwar SouthRichard Johnston of the University of Pennsylvania and Byron Shafer of the University of Wisconsin argue that the shift in the South from Democratic to Republican was overwhelmingly a question not of race but of economic growth.

In the postwar era, they note, the South transformed itself from a backward region to an engine of the national economy, giving rise to a sizable new wealthy suburban class. This class, not surprisingly, began to vote for the party that best represented its economic interests: the G.O.P.

Working-class whites, however — and here’s the surprise — even those in areas with large black populations, stayed loyal to the Democrats. (This was true until the 90s, when the nation as a whole turned rightward in Congressional voting.)

The two scholars support their claim with an extensive survey of election returns and voter surveys.

To give just one example: in the 50s, among Southerners in the low-income tercile, 43 percent voted for Republican Presidential candidates, while in the high-income tercile, 53 percent voted Republican; by the 80s, those figures were 51 percent and 77 percent, respectively.

Wealthy Southerners shifted rightward in droves but poorer ones didn’t.





http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10Section2b.t-4.html

 

[rdean]

Considering the Democrats created the KKK, that's a very interesting viewpoint you have.

And if you want to think South and KKK, you should pause and reflect on the life and times of Senator KKK Byrd.

How many of those Democrats who created the KKK are still alive, Tinydancer? And if they were, how many of them would support the modern Democrat Party?

Interesting question, since the KKK has morphed. I think you would find that the paltry number of existing so called KKK members aren't voting for either party.

Both Democrats and Republicans would repulse them.

And that in itself is a major victory for both liberals and conservatives that we have pushed and held groups like the KKK to the fringe and that we blatantly and unapologetically loathe their existence.

Zero tolerance of organizations such as Neo Nazis and the KKK has probably been one of our biggest achievements in the past few decades.

The Democrats would repulse them. I believe it's safe to stop there.

 

[rdean]

Shucks, Rachel's calling the GOP racists. Who would have expected that?

She is clearly a brilliant analyst of the issues.

Clearly. And the results prove how correct she is. The Republican Party is 90% white. Many members consider themselves "Confederate Republicans" and play at "war reenactments" wearing southern uniforms.

Republicans are so riled up at the "black" man in the "White" House. And why is that?

They insist he raised taxes, only he didn't.

The insist he has proposed legislation to limit gun rights, even though he expanded gun rights.

They insist he is a Marxist and a Communist, even though it was Republicans who worked to send millions of American jobs to Communist China from 2001 to 2008.

They insist Obama wants America to lose in Afghanistan even though he has tripled the number of troops there.

They insist Obama wants to nationalize the banks. That has proved false.

By the way, the CBO says the health care bill will save America 150 billion over the next ten years.

Add all the racist pictures, watermelon patch, Obama food stamps with chicken and watermelon, and on and on.

Maddow is not only 100% correct, but the results are obvious, even to that Republican base their leaders call "hicky".

When you say the Republican Party is 90% white I do hope you realize that Caucasian covers all races /ethnicities other than Negroid and Asian.

So that is a huge tent that embraces descendants of many nationalities.

So what's the problem with Italian descendants, Polish descendants, Brazilian descendants being members of the Republican party?

Is there something wrong with that?

Brazilian? Is that a joke?

Whatever these white people are. That's 90% of the Republican Party:

 

[Flopper]

I am not saying that Republicans today are any more racists than Democrats. What I am saying, is the Republican Party over the years has adopted many of the principals the southern Democrats brought into the party. For example:

· Hatred for a large powerful federal government that intrudes on the lives of citizens. The South had seen their segregated culture destroyed at the point of a federal bayonet. So when Ronald Regan declared that government was evil, that was right in line with the beliefs of the South. Today the dismantling of that evil empire is a top priority for Republicans.

· States Rights. This was the rallying cry for the South for a hundred years. Southerners saw states rights as a way to protected southern culture; i.e. deny voting rights to blacks and keep the South segregated. In his first presidential campaign speech in Philadelphia, Miss. where 3 civil rights workers were murdered in the 60’s, Reagan delivered a speech that was a ringing declaration of support for states rights. This was not only wildly applauded by Southerners but formed a foundation for much of the Reagan policy. Today Republican lawmakers seek to restore states rights usurped by the federal government.

· Welfare: Southerners had been calling for the dismantling of the welfare system long before Republicans began their crusade. Southerners saw welfare as a handout to lazy blacks that wouldn’t work. Republicans see it pretty much the same way today except they generalized it to anyone who doesn’t work.

· Christianity: In the old South, Christianity and religion were almost synonymous. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, were such a small minority they were just ignored. Agnostics were those that just didn’t understand the faith. Atheists were communist. And that about covered it. When southern Democrats became Republicans they brought these ideas into the party, which has been the key for evangelical support.

The Republican southern strategy developing the 70’s pulled together these ideas that became the heart of the conservative movement. Take any one these ideas to a tea party meeting and you will find near unanimous support.

 

[NYcarbineer]

The following states have Democrat majorities in both houses their state legislatures:

Alabama
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina


States with split houses split houses:

Kentucky


These states have Republican majorities in both houses:

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Tennessee

Source

Tell me again how the south is solidly Republican?

Who claimed that? The point is the strategy, not the outcome.

And you left out Texas.

Texas isn't part of what's traditionally called the south. Since most of the southern states have democrat majorities, I'd say the "strategy" is someone's fictionalized creation, rather than fact. Why make an issue of federal elections when the Republicans can't even get majorities in the state legislatures?

Are Republicans now getting 10% of the black vote, since the strategy began? Yes.

Did you know Eisenhower got 39% of the black vote in 1956? Probably not.

Did you know Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other than his home state of AZ, only won some states in the Old South, aka, the formerly Solid South, as in solidly Democrat?

 

[daveman]

avater, lonestar, and cali girl come in with the predictable ad hominem... shocking

The predictable ad hominem is in the OP.

 

[tinydancer]

Clearly. And the results prove how correct she is. The Republican Party is 90% white. Many members consider themselves "Confederate Republicans" and play at "war reenactments" wearing southern uniforms.

Republicans are so riled up at the "black" man in the "White" House. And why is that?

They insist he raised taxes, only he didn't.

The insist he has proposed legislation to limit gun rights, even though he expanded gun rights.

They insist he is a Marxist and a Communist, even though it was Republicans who worked to send millions of American jobs to Communist China from 2001 to 2008.

They insist Obama wants America to lose in Afghanistan even though he has tripled the number of troops there.

They insist Obama wants to nationalize the banks. That has proved false.

By the way, the CBO says the health care bill will save America 150 billion over the next ten years.

Add all the racist pictures, watermelon patch, Obama food stamps with chicken and watermelon, and on and on.

Maddow is not only 100% correct, but the results are obvious, even to that Republican base their leaders call "hicky".

When you say the Republican Party is 90% white I do hope you realize that Caucasian covers all races /ethnicities other than Negroid and Asian.

So that is a huge tent that embraces descendants of many nationalities.

So what's the problem with Italian descendants, Polish descendants, Brazilian descendants being members of the Republican party?

Is there something wrong with that?

Brazilian? Is that a joke?

I only edited for brevity.

Actually, the Brazillian part is part of the wierdness of the equation that I really don't get because they really aren't listed as any of the categories.

I throw them in for fun statistically just to see if people are paying attention. But you must realize how many white people and backgrounds you are dissing with your insults.

Caucasian encompasses all of these listed as defined by the 2000 Census.

White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish."

So are you sure you want to just knock all these "whites" as racist?

Now to your pictures. Can you prove these people are Republicans?

 

[daveman]

I'm interested to see what responses I might get from our left leaning friends here.

Usually some version of "Nuh-UH, you big doodyhead!!", only not as eloquent.

 

[daveman]

avater, lonestar, and cali girl come in with the predictable ad hominem... shocking

I don't understand why they bother doing that.

They clearly aren't bright enough to cheerfully accept being insulted by a liberal.

 

[StreamWalker]

I'd say Texas has a rich Southern Tradition as a good part of it's founders arrived from Southern States and that The Lone Star State threw in with Richmond durng The War Between the States

As a Southerner myself I'm begining to notice a development amongst some of my rural kin, friends and neighbors. They've given up on the two failing political parties and are starting to look after their own. A lot of those fellows up in the hills will pop-off at either blues or reds. Guess they're a bit jaded or maybe even a little ticked.

 

[tinydancer]

I'd say Texas has a rich Southern Tradition as a good part of it's founders arrived from Southern States and that The Lone Star State threw in with Richmond durng The War Between the States

As a Southerner myself I'm begining to notice a development amongst some of my rural kin, friends and neighbors. They've given up on the two failing political parties and are starting to look after their own. A lot of those fellows up in the hills will pop-off at either blues or reds. Guess they're a bit jaded or maybe even a little ticked.

On various boards I've noticed a high count of Libertarians posting from Texas. Most interesting.

Many are saying that they will vote for Perry only to keep the Dem from winning. Pity because Glass looks like an excellent candidate but they know they have to stop White
from becoming Governor to keep Texas from becoming a sanctuary state.

And Rasmussen is showing Texas as solid GOP.

But after this election I dare say all bets will be up in the air for the future. You have a very strong Libertarian and Tea Party movement in your state.

 

[Trajan]

is this the madcow rant with the big "scoop" that some republican congressman had advance notice of the Oklahoma City bombing?

unreal.