The Washington Post, October 12, 2023
“The whole secret of politics is knowing who hates who.”
That insight was the brainchild of Kevin Phillips, the longtime political analyst who passed away this week at 82 years old. Phillips’s 1969 book, “The Emerging Republican Majority,” provided the blueprint for the “southern strategy” that the Republican Party adopted for decades to win over White voters who were alienated by the Democratic Party’s embrace of civil rights in the 1960s.
Though Phillips later reconsidered his fealty to the GOP, updated versions of the “southern strategy” live on in today’s Republican Party, shaping the political world we inhabit today.
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If the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the War on Poverty declared the same year had been followed by most American Negroes beginning to behave and perform as well as most whites, the Southern Strategy would not have been successful.
Instead, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the declaration of the War on Poverty were followed by five years of black ghetto riots and more enduring increases in black social pathology.
White racial moderates had thought that by supporting the civil rights movement they were buying racial peace. When the opposite happened they felt betrayed., and began to vote Republican.
Kevin Philips saw an opportunity that black criminals, and their white apologists created for the Republican Party. He did not create that opportunity. During the 1960's the Democrat Party went out on a limb to help Negroes. Many Negroes cut off the limb.
“The whole secret of politics is knowing who hates who.”
That insight was the brainchild of Kevin Phillips, the longtime political analyst who passed away this week at 82 years old. Phillips’s 1969 book, “The Emerging Republican Majority,” provided the blueprint for the “southern strategy” that the Republican Party adopted for decades to win over White voters who were alienated by the Democratic Party’s embrace of civil rights in the 1960s.
Though Phillips later reconsidered his fealty to the GOP, updated versions of the “southern strategy” live on in today’s Republican Party, shaping the political world we inhabit today.
-------------
If the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the War on Poverty declared the same year had been followed by most American Negroes beginning to behave and perform as well as most whites, the Southern Strategy would not have been successful.
Instead, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the declaration of the War on Poverty were followed by five years of black ghetto riots and more enduring increases in black social pathology.
White racial moderates had thought that by supporting the civil rights movement they were buying racial peace. When the opposite happened they felt betrayed., and began to vote Republican.
Kevin Philips saw an opportunity that black criminals, and their white apologists created for the Republican Party. He did not create that opportunity. During the 1960's the Democrat Party went out on a limb to help Negroes. Many Negroes cut off the limb.