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Southern Strategy

JC Callender

JC Callender

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I often hear Democrats say that the Southern Strategy flipped Democrats and Republicans.Conservatives who used to be Democrats became Republicans and Liberals became Democrats. Well, who did Liberals vote for before the Southern Strategy, Coolige...Hoover....Ike? And what do you think of FDR, being in the party opposite of yours at the time?
 
the parties weren't always divided by liberals vs conservatives (especially the way we use the words today) until the southern strategy, the idea that the deeply religious party and the pro business big banker party are on the same side would seem strange to anyone 100 years ago
 
dimensionallava said:
the parties weren't always divided by liberals vs conservatives (especially the way we use the words today) until the southern strategy, the idea that the deeply religious party and the pro business big banker party are on the same side would seem strange to anyone 100 years ago
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They wernt even with the "southern strategy" as Nixon was pretty liberal and you see how much of the South voted for Carter. It really flipped in 1980 and has stayed that way since. It'll be interesting to see if it will ever change again.
 
JC Callender said:
I often hear Democrats say that the Southern Strategy flipped Democrats and Republicans.Conservatives who used to be Democrats became Republicans and Liberals became Democrats. Well, who did Liberals vote for before the Southern Strategy, Coolige...Hoover....Ike? And what do you think of FDR, being in the party opposite of yours at the time?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Texas

... wiki has a good historical summary of this:

The rebirth of the Republican Party in Texas can be traced back to 1952, when Democratic Governor Allan Shivers clashed with the Truman Administration over the claim on the Tidelands. He worked to help Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was born in Texas, carry the state. Beginning in the late 1960s, Republican strength increased in Texas, particularly in the growing "country club suburbs" around Dallas and Houston. The election of Republicans such as John Tower and George H. W. Bush to Congress in 1960 and 1966, respectively, reflected this trend. Nationally, Democrats supported the civil rights movement and achieved important passage of federal legislation in the mid-1960s. Following passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, southern Democrats began to leave the party and join the Republicans.

Unlike the rest of the South, however, Texas was never especially supportive of the various third-party candidacies of Southern Democrats. It was the only state in the former Confederacy to back Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election. The 1980s saw a number of defections by conservative Democrats to the GOP, including Senator Phil Gramm, Congressman Kent Hance, and GOP Governor Rick Perry, who was a Democrat during his time as a state lawmaker.

John Tower's 1961 election to the U.S. Senate made him the first statewide GOP officeholder since Reconstruction. Governor Bill Clements and Senator Phil Gramm (also a former Democrat) followed. Republicans became increasingly dominant in national elections in Texas. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Previously, a Democrat had to win Texas to win the White House, but in the 1992 election, Bill Clinton won the Oval Office while losing Texas electoral votes. This significantly reduced the power of Texas Democrats at the national level, as party leaders believed the state had become unwinnable.
 
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The "solid south" started flipping from Democrat to Republican after the passing of the Civil Rights Act. By the mid 80's and because of Reagan, the south was pretty much solid Republican save for a few Dixiecrats. The Southern Strategy was a campaign strategy that Nixon used to get elected but it's more likely that he won because he promised to end the Vietnam war. It's extremely rare to see a conservative actually admit or even acknowledge that the two parties flipped sides and that today's GOP is not the party of Lincoln. I think we have the "lost cause" strategy to thank for that.
 
Moot said:
The "solid south" started flipping from Democrat to Republican after the passing of the Civil Rights Act. By the mid 80's and because of Reagan, the south was pretty much solid Republican save for a few Dixiecrats. The Southern Strategy was a campaign strategy that Nixon used to get elected but it's more likely that he won because he promised to end the Vietnam war. It's extremely rare to see a conservative actually admit or even acknowledge that the two parties flipped sides and that today's GOP is not the party of Lincoln. I think we have the "lost cause" strategy to thank for that.
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Do you care to answer the original question?
 
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