The myth of the southern strategy

Democrats love to propagate this myth to "prove" republicans are racist but the truth is far different once the light of day is shined on this .
Myth busted.


"So progressives insist that Nixon made a racist “dog whistle” appeal to Deep South voters. Evidently he spoke to them in a kind of code"

"Nixon had an excellent record on civil rights. He supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was an avid champion of the desegregation of public schools. The progressive columnist Tom Wicker wrote in the New York Times, “There’s no doubt about it — the Nixon administration accomplished more in 1970 to desegregate Southern school systems than had been done in the 16 previous years or probably since. There’s no doubt either that it was Richard Nixon personally who conceived and led the administration’s desegregation effort.”

"The South, as a whole, became Republican during the 1980s and 1990s. This had nothing to do with Nixon; it was because of Ronald Reagan and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” The conservative appeal to patriotism, anti-communism, free markets, pro-life and Christianity had far more to do with the South’s movement into the GOP camp than anything related to race."

Yet the myth of Nixon’s Southern Strategy endures — not because it’s true, but because it conveniently serves to exculpate the crimes of the Democratic Party. Somehow the party that promoted slavery, segregation, Jim Crow and racial terrorism gets to wipe its slate clean by pretending that, with Nixon’s connivance, the Republicans stole all their racists. It’s time we recognize this excuse for what it is: one more Democratic big lie.



https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/402754-the-myth-of-nixons-southern-strategy

 

And if you leftist don't like the OP source.....


https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/...e knows,— and as a result dominated the South.

 

“Myth busted” by right wing pundit Dinesh D’Souza?

Gimmee a break

I wasn’t even aware he was out of jail yet

 

Paywall

 

"Richard 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."


"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.

To be sure, Shafer says, many whites in the South aggressively opposed liberal Democrats on race issues. “But when folks went to the polling booths,” he says, “they didn’t shoot off their own toes. They voted by their economic preferences, not racial preferences.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/...e knows,— and as a result dominated the South.

 

Here's the real clincher that debunks the southern strategy myth.
Myth busted


"And how many racist Dixiecrats did Nixon win for the GOP? Turns out, virtually none. Among the racist Dixiecrats, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was the sole senator to defect to the Republicans — and he did this long before Nixon’s time. Only one Dixiecrat congressman, Albert Watson of South Carolina, switched to the GOP. The rest, more than 200 Dixiecrat senators, congressmen, governors and high elected officials, all stayed in the Democratic Party."


https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/402754-the-myth-of-nixons-southern-strategy

 

The South votes Dem for decades. They were bitterly opposed to Republican policies that favored the wealthy and banks and that doesn’t change over night. But race did eat away at that and now look at it

 

Quiet as leftist are in this thread I have to think they read it and swallow hard.

 

I think the Democrats saw the end coming when they lost the Civil War. The Dixiecrats bitterly clung to their racist beliefs for awhile and even recruited Joe Biden into their ranks, but the South changed, and the Dixiecrats did not, and eventually the Dems lost and the Republicans took over. My father was a diehard Democrat his whole life, but if he were alive today, he would be disgusted with them.

 

Nope, still trying to figure how to make it Trump's fault is all.

 

Desperately looking for some rebutal narrative?
There isnt one. Once you look at facts the southern strategy myth implodes.

 

My observation of our present society is that democrats suck up to blacks except for conservative blacks while republicans treat them as republicans treat everyone.

 

And the correlating factoid - most blacks shifted to the Democrat Party thanks to FDR's social programs, despite the Democrat Party's continued love affair with the KKK.

 

Actually it isn't a myth at all and we delved deep into this during my political science schooling.

It is not disputed that the "South" was up for grabs at this point due to a number of factors and that both national committees had a plan of action to get that group of voters. In fact you can easily find the plans each side authored and who the main writers were if you do a little bit of research on it.

This is normal and expected and always happens when a group or block of voters can be swayed.

To make a long story short, the republicans plan was executed better than the democrats and (for a number of reasons) they successfully convinced the majority of white voters to go republican. This is where the controversy comes in, specifically in what Nixon's intentions were while campaigning down there. He never admitted to following a strategy but it's clear from his actions that he was playing politics. Not only him but both sides went full force after those voters.

The interesting part is that while the republicans won the majority of white votes they did not anticipate that the democrats would turn that into a racial division to be used against the republicans from that point on which is in fact exactly what happened. The democrats succeeded in turning almost the entirety of the minority vote into their camp following the Southern Strategy and have basically kept it ever since it what is now considered one of the best political moves in American political history. While winning the white vote has paid more dividends simply because they have a higher voter participation rate than minorities the numbers are now going to start turning until eventually the democrats have all the southern states as their minority population increases.

This is a huge problem facing the republican party as their current voter base down there is slowly dying off and being replaced.

 

In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for exploiting racial polarization to win elections and ignoring the black vote.[13][14]

 

Although the phrase "Southern Strategy" is often attributed to Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, he did not originate it[15] but popularized it.[16] In an interview included in a 1970 New York Times article, Phillips stated his analysis based on studies of ethnic voting:

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.[1]

 

Or they’re just tired of having to keep explaining to you how wrong you are.

 

I've never heard of Kevin Phillips that I can recall but if he did say those things that was his personal opinion which is not reflective of Republican policies nor of any other republican. Those are his words and beliefs and they are not transferable to all Republicans. Unless you would like to taint every Democrat with every stupid thing other racist Democrat said.

 

The myth of the southern strategy that you studiously avoided is that it was to get racist to turn Republican by catering to their racism. The myth is southern racist switched parties in droves because of this. The facts are quite different.


"And how many racist Dixiecrats did Nixon win for the GOP? Turns out, virtually none. Among the racist Dixiecrats, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was the sole senator to defect to the Republicans — and he did this long before Nixon’s time. Only one Dixiecrat congressman, Albert Watson of South Carolina, switched to the GOP. The rest, more than 200 Dixiecrat senators, congressmen, governors and high elected officials, all stayed in the Democratic Party."

 

I did include that part.

However the Dixiecrats were already disbanded for the most part by the time of the Southern Strategy which was indeed an attempt by both parties to secure the white vote. The only controversy, as you alluded to, is how much of it was based on racism. I think none of it was as it was simply a political power grab. This move, the Southern Strategy, also helped lead to the Great Migration which I am sure you are familiar with. Blacks who were mostly republican at the time found the Northern democrats more to their liking in part, (or mostly) because of the democrats ability to use the Southern Strategy as a racist ploy by the republicans.

They still use this as a talking point to this day. However, we can look at many moves, led by Nixon at this time during the campaign that were indeed playing of the racism of whites down there. While he ultimately had no interest in racism, quite the opposite in fact, and turned out to be a pretty strong supporter of civil rights, there is little doubt that he did cater to them in some ways, even if it were just in the form of speeches.

There is no real way to gauge that however.

So what do we know.

1. There was a Southern Strategy
2. It ultimately was not based on racism.
3. The republicans won the support of the white voters.
4. After this the majority of blacks supported the democratic party.

There have also been other "strategies" throughout our history, especially prior to the Civil War. The Pacific Northwest was a huge fight as well as rural farmers in the Midwest at one point.

 

I have no problem with your summation of the southern strategy which confirms the OP and the myth of the southern strategy being based on racism. As you say it was based purely on economics and what was in the economic interests of the south and those who claim it was race based are completely full of ****.
Myth busted

As to why blacks at that point started voting democrat thats largely based on the myth of the southern strategy that democrats successfully instilled in the black culture.

 

That from the guy who designed the strategy. They knew they were screwed in the South. Their goal was to pick off what they could.

Over time it worked better than they could have ever hoped

 

And let's not forget this

 

Obama and his fascists locked Dinesh up for thought crimes. I'm surprised though that the party of slavery, the KKK, lynchings, and the National Plantation of economic bondage nominated a half black man to be President. I think they elected the other half, from Ireland ,,, the former home of many Southern Democrat Plantation owners. As it turns out, some of the idiosyncrasies of ghetto talk like "aks" came from Ireland.

 

Campaign finance violation, felony guilty plea, conviction, and pardon
On January 23, 2014, D'Souza was charged with making $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the New York Senate campaign of Wendy Long and causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission.[140][141][142] His attorney responded to the charges by saying his client "did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever" and described the incident as "at most ... an act of misguided friendship".[143][144]

On May 15, 2014, United States district judge Richard M. Berman rejected the contention that D'Souza was singled out for prosecution, stating, "The court concludes the defendant has respectfully submitted no evidence he was selectively prosecuted."[145]

On May 20, 2014, D'Souza pleaded guilty to one felony count of making illegal contributions in the names of others.[146] On September 23, 2014, the court sentenced D'Souza to five years' probation, eight months in a halfway house (referred to as a "community confinement center") and a $30,000 fine.[13][14] After D'Souza's conviction, his claim of selective prosecution continued to receive support from some conservative media and commentators.[147]