I'm not trying to point out that Republicans were any more racist than Democrats. However, beginning in 1960's the GOP got a big boost when southerns began voting Republican, first in national elections and then state and local elections.
The shift from Democrat to Republican in the South began in the mid 1960s with the civil rights act, first presidential elections, then gubernatorial elections and finally the legislatures. However it all began with the passage of the civil rights bill.
In presidential elections:
After reconstruction and prior to the introduction of the civil rights act, the southern states voted for Democrat presidential candidates in 95% of the elections. In fact several states, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina had never voted Republican after reconstruction until the Civil Rights Act was passed.
After the introduction of the civil rights bill, almost every southern state voted Republican in presidential elections with the exception of the Carter and Clinton election. Alabama and Mississippi have never voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since the civil rights bill was passed.
List of United States presidential election results by state - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In gubernatorial elections, the South started turning to Republicans in 1966 with Republican wins in Arkansas and Florida, followed by Kentucky in 1967, and North Carolina in 1973. Beginning in 1980, the remainder of the Southern states began electing a steady stream of Republican governors.
Solid South - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1. Goldwater was one of only six Republican senators to vote against the 1964 act. He did so on libertarian grounds, opposed to the acts restrictions on private property which he believed beyond the Congresss powers under the commerce clause. Five others supported the partys presidential nominee.
a. Goldwater went on to win five southern states in 1964: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. But he lost eight.
b. Democrats build the southern strategy tale on the fact that the same states voted for Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond in 1948 (less Georgia).
c. Except that
Nixon and Reagan lost, or almost lost the same states in 68 and 80
d. And Jimmy Carter and Clinton did pretty well in those states in
76 and 92.
e. And the
Goldwater states went right back to voting Democrat for decades
2. "I'm not trying to point out that Republicans were any more racist than Democrats."
That's not strong enough.
The implication is that they were equally 'racist.'
Not true....the Democrats were the racist party.....the KKK was their military wing...and I'd be happy to document same.
So
if Republicans were racists and got racist southerners to vote for them, how to explain this: Republicans always did best in the southern states that Goldwater lost, which happened to be the same ones Republicans had been winning with some regularity since 1928.
a. In
28, 52, 56, and 60, Republicans generally won Virginia, Florida, Texas, Kentucky and sometimes North Carolina or Louisiana. Did you notice that those years were before 1964, the so-called 'turning point'?
b. Four years after Goldwater, the segregationist vote went right back to Democrats:
Humphrey got half of Wallaces supporters on election day. Nixon got none of em. When the '68 campaign began, Nixon was at 42 percent, Humphrey at 29 percent, Wallace at 22 percent. When it ended, Nixon and Humphrey were tied at 43 percent, with Wallace at 13 percent. The 9 percent of the national vote that had been peeled off from Wallace had gone to Humphrey.
The neocons & Nixon's southern strategy - Pat Buchanan - Page 1
c. In 76, Carter swept the South.
Was Carter appealing to bigots
.or is that only the case when Republicans win the South?
3. Reagan lost or barely won the Goldwater states
but Reagan won among young southern voters- but lost among seniors, those who has voted in 48 and 64. That meant that
the segregationists never abandoned the Democrats: eventually they died or were outvoted by younger voters. Nope
after Thurmonds run, the
Dixiecrats went right back to voting for Democrats for another half century.
4. In writing about McGovern and Wallace, liberal luminary, Arthur Schlesinger, actually
referred to Wallace voters as responding to their candidates integrity! The primaries themselves, especially the success of McGovern and Wallace, provide the best evidence for the proposition that voters in 1972 care less about a candidate's stand on particular issues than they do about the candidate's integrity,
How McGovern Will Win
a.
McGovern gave a tip-of-the-hat to the segregationist Wallace in his acceptance speech at the Democrat Convention. That was the exact midpoint between Goldwater and Reagan. So
what of the imaginary southern strategy where the Republicans were supposed to have a plan to appeal to racists?
b. Democrat McGovern: And I was as moved as well by the appearance in the Convention Hall of the Governor of Alabama,
George Wallace.
Governor, we pray for your full recovery so you can stand up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH OF SENATOR GEORGE MCGOVERN
Covered pretty fully in chapter 12 if "Mugged," Coulter
And....I'd be more than happy...in fact ecstatic .....to remind of the racist history of Bill Clinton.
Just say the word.
