Liberal myth: the GOP 'Southern Strategy'

[dman72]

Originally Posted by emm74

Ah yes, you can listen to that well known Liberal Lee Atwater opining on the GOP Southern Strategy

https://www.thenation.com/article/ex...hern-strategy/

Yet the right wingers will still try to run this idiotic interference, like anyone will be fooled. Lee Atwater worked for Reagan. Reagan is the hero of the right wing/talk radio/tea party crowd.

[Hesychios]

Originally Posted by Mr. Joshua

I reiterate, the south stopped being grotesquely racist when it became heavily republican.

And you know this how?

Republican outreach (in changing neighborhoods in the north as well as across the south) was based upon white reaction to civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation, integration of schools and bussing.

I constantly heard the mantra from speakers "I didn't leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me" as a way of persuading voters that switching was ok and their outdated attitudes about race were still welcome in the Republican party.

The core of the modern Republican party in the south was created by Strom Thurmond leading the entire Democratic party machinery in some areas, first into his 'States Rights Democrats' schism and then right to the Republican National Committee. If you don't know who Strom Thurmond was, look him up.

These people didn't have some kind of moral epiphany, becoming Republican was not some sort of cleansing moment, they were like rats scurrying from one gutter to another.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

Actually Reagan did not campaign in Phildelphia MS. It was at the Neshoba County fairgrounds, several miles away. Mike Dukakis also held a rally there when he ran in 1992. Was he therefore trying to appeal to white racists? No because he had that 'D' next to his name and therefore must have been innocent, viewed through your political lens. Am I right?


And that was not the start of Reagan's campaign. It actually started in NYC.
https://www.redstate.com/dan_mclaugh...iladelphia-ms/


Geez and for pity's sake--states' rights is in the US Constitution. Reagan had been a staunch proponent of the concept going back to his days as California governor. And you somehow think this makes him racist?


When everything is racist, nothing is racist, and you provide cover for the real racism that still exists among us.


Summary: the thread has gone through 12 pages and 100 posts. Many have claimed that Southern strategy was no myth. The arguments amount to logical fallacies, claims of voluminous evidence, with none presented, factually inaccurate claims, and nutty conspiracy theories. The Southern strategy is a myth.

Oh stop with the gaslighting puh-leeze.

You want to mention Reagan and California?

Reagan ran first for governor with supporting white resentment - such as repealing the fair housing act back in the 1960s.

Pete Wilson, out of desparation for reelection in 1994, used a variation of the same strategy stoking resentment of a minority community, but this time at Latinos - with the Prop 187 issue. He won but this lead to the alienation of Latino voters in California from the GOP to this day. You can see where that's gotten the California GOP electorally today.