Dear Republicans, Stop Denying the Southern Strategy
By: Conor Kelly
Tags: History, Politics, Recognition, Southern Strategy, Civil Rights

Dear Republicans, Stop Denying the Southern Strategy

Barry Goldwater. Image taken from WikiCommons

With the recent eruption of Black Lives Matter protesters, many Americans are being forced to come to terms with the racist history of the United States and how that racist history affects us today. From Biden’s involvement with the 1984 crime bill, to Reagan’s racist commentary with then-President Richard Nixon, America is facing a moment of introspection that will affect America for generations to come. It is this deep, profound moment of reflection that makes or breaks a country. Unfortunately, there are some who would deny such an event, and it appears that this is part of a broader effort by the Right.

Just this week, the Telegraph Herald, a local newspaper in my town, published a Letter to the Editor by Mr. Laverne Domeyer. The piece sought to compare the Democratic party of the 19th century to the party of today while also arguing for the reelection of the current administration. Among some of the more blatant party attacks, Mr. Domeyer argues that, “It was the Democrat South who imported the slaves to pick their cotton and other menial tasks. It was the Democratic Ku Klux Klan that continued their regime of terror by hanging Blacks for any perceived grievance.” While it is true that the Democrats were the party of slavery during the civil war and reconstruction, some serious leaps of logic have to be made to consider that to be representative of the modern Democratic party. In order for the 19th century Democrats to be comparable to their modern counter parts, one must suppose that the parties never switched. Such a position flies in the face of reality. It serves to obscure the truth, and serves only to reaffirm the prejudices of the Republican’s conservative, White base.

Mr. Domeyer is far from alone in his anachronistic view of the parties, PragerU has also promoted this narrative that the parties never flipped. Candace Owens has also made that claim repeatedly. in defiance of all historical evidence and facts. Among some of the arguments promoted by this video are as follows:

1. Republicans were competitive with the Democrats in the South since 1928 and therefore, there was no need to appeal to White racists.

2. Republicans lost the deep south in 1968, 1976, 1992 and 1996. How effective was the Southern Strategy?

3. Republicans were the party of Civil Rights

This framework is constructed by splitting points in history and ignoring others. In particular, Dr. Carol Swain, the narrator of the video, makes no mention of Barry Goldwater despite the fact that he is the one who helped start the realignment in the South.

Goldwater was firmly against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it was unconstitutional. In fact, Barry Goldwater was such a threat to Civil Rights legislation that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. condemned him in a sermon at Antioch Baptist Church on October 11th, 1964. Due to his extensive opposition to Civil Rights Act of 1964, Goldwater won Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Arizona. To put this in perspective, Mississippi and South Carolina hadn’t been Republican since Reconstruction.

Screenshot taken from 270towin.com

Indeed, seven congressional districts that had been firmly Democratic since Reconstruction went to the Republicans during that time period. In Alabama, five Republican candidates for Congress won and dumped three incumbent Democratic Congressmen. Among the Democrats who had been representing Alabama in Congress, only Armistead Selden remained in office. Mind you, Selden was a signatory to the “Southern Manifesto,” which opposed to the integration of schools, so it isn’t surprising that he survived. In Georgia, Republican Howard Calloway beat Democratic incumbent Garland Byrd and in Mississippi, Prentiss Walker beat Democratic incumbent Arthur Winstead, who had served since 1942. Although Goldwater lost, his approach to Civil Rights ended Democratic control of the South and began the long, extensive process of a party switch and ensured that the Deep South would no longer be a stronghold for the Democratic party.

You may have noted that I referred to it as a long, extensive switch. Because at its core, that is it was. The party switch was not immediate as Dr. Swain or others would like to argue, but was a decades-long process that took time and experimentation to perfect. Republicans would begin to see how potent racial prejudice could be when the infamous former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, ran as an independent in 1968, winning the Deep South.

In 1972, Nixon would win not just the Deep South, but all of the South.

There was but one example of a true Democratic resurgence in the South and it took place in 1976. Jimmy Carter, a Southern Democrat, won the South in an overwhelming show of force.

It would be the last time that Democrats could come close to such a display and it was primarily due to his Southern connections. In 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan won all the Southern states save for Georgia, which he would take in 1984.

The last chance for the Democrats in the South came in 1992 and 1996, but Republican efforts were hampered in both elections by the Reform Party candidate, Ross Perot. Even with these advantages, Democrats failed to take the Carolinas, Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Alabama in 1992. In 1996, Republicans would begin to make inroads into the South even with Ross Perot running yet again. Never again would the Democrats win a state in the Deep South.

Though some may remain unconvinced about the Southern strategy, and may argue that this may be just coincidence. If you are such a person, then allow me to put that bed to rest. Lee Atwater, a strategist for both Nixon and Reagan, spilled the beans for us in 1981 with his interview with reporter Alexander Lamis, saying:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, “N****r, n****r, n****r.” By 1968 you can’t say “n***r” — that hurts you, backfires. So, you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N****r, n****r.” -Lee Atwater to Alexander Lamis, 1981.

It is self-evident that the Republicans and their advisors knew what they were doing. They said so to interviewers, and in the case of current Republican senator, Lamar Alexander, they wrote memos about it and actively confirmed they had done it. Reagan, the godlike figure for many Republicans, went to the murder scene of several SNCC activists who were killed for the Civil Rights work in Mississippi and, in a speech to the people of Mississippi, said, “I believe in States Rights,” a phrase consistently used by White Southerners to cover for their racism. The symbolism was obvious.

I am not suggesting that Democrats are angels or that the Democrats don’t have a lot to answer for, they do. Biden’s “You aren’t Black,” comment is just an example of the pernicious and continuous problems that the Democrats have to face. However, where the Republicans promote groups like PragerU who deny the Republicans racist past, the Democrats are actively trying to acknowledge their past sins rather than pretending they have none. Senator Bernie Sanders, who voted for the 1994 Crime Bill, has been open and honest about his past vote. Biden, the current nominee for the Democrats, although less inclined to admit his mistakes than Sanders, has still acknowledged the damage done by his involvement in the 1994 Crime Act. Trump can’t even be bothered to apologize for his death penalty ads directed at the Central Park Five.

If I have to chose between the party that is trying to cleanse itself of its sin and the party that claims it has none, I will go with the one that is putting in the work.