THREAD: Proof that Racist Republicans and Democrats switched parties between the 1860s and the 1960s.
β’ The Republican Party was created in 1848 with the eradication of slavery as its primary goal. Democrat-controlled southern states seceded right after their second presidential nominee, Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 fearing that he would destroy their slave-based economy.
The freshly liberated slaves went to the Republican Party after the Civil War, as expected, but Democratic rule of the South from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Era was almost absolute.
β’ Democrats controlled every Senate seat south of the Mason-Dixon line in 1960.
β’ Democrats controlled every Senate seat south of the Mason-Dixon line in 1960.
β’ Democrats held an astounding 117-8 majority in the House of Representatives in the 13 states that started the Confederacy a century ago.
β’ The Democratic Party was so dominant in the south that its 117 House members were 41% of the Democrats' 283-153 majority in the Chamber.
β’ The Democratic Party was so dominant in the south that its 117 House members were 41% of the Democrats' 283-153 majority in the Chamber.
Similarly, Democratic governors and largely Democratic state legislatures ruled the South during the late 1950s and early 1960s, staunchly opposing the civil rights movement. It was called The Solid South
β’ Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the other hand, openly praised school desegregation in the Brown v. Board of Education verdict and sent the Arkansas National Guard to Little Rock to protect 9 black students after Democratic Governor Orval Faubus threatened them.
Eisenhower won his election by gaining traction for the Republican Party, winning elections in Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee. Four years later, Eisenhower won a landslide win in Louisiana and Kentucky.
This is important because:
This is important because:
β’ When he departed office in 1961, the Democratic Party's grip on the South was perhaps greater than it had been for decades.
While Democrats stuck to conventional segregation, the rest of the nation was changing, and the civil rights movement started.
While Democrats stuck to conventional segregation, the rest of the nation was changing, and the civil rights movement started.
β’ After President John F. Kennedy, a strong supporter of civil rights, was assassinated in late 1963, Southern Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson said was his duty to enact the Civil Rights Act as a homage to Kennedy, and proposed the law 5 months before his death. Democrats altered it
β’ The Civil Rights Act was rejected by 21 Democrats in the Senate. Only one of them, "Dixiecrat" Strom Thurmond, was ever elected to the GOP. The remainder, including former Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops Al Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd, remained Democrats until the day they died.
β’ Also, when those 20 lifetime Democrats departed, their Senate seats stayed in Democratic control for decades. Until 1994, when a Republican wave election gave the GOP control of the House for the first time since 1952, the vast majority of House seats in the South did as well.
β’ 1994 was also the first time Republicans controlled a majority of House seats in the South, 30 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed.
β’ Republicans expanded support in the South from then, until two more wave elections in 2010 and 2014.
β’ Republicans expanded support in the South from then, until two more wave elections in 2010 and 2014.
β’ After the 1964 election, the first since the Civil Rights Act's adoption and the ideal moment for racist Democrat supporters to defect to Republicans, Democrats still enjoyed a 102-20 House advantage in states that had formerly been part of the Confederacy.
β’ Remember, that lead was 117-8 in 1960. A gain of 12 seats (half of which are in Alabama) is hardly the dramatic movement that would be expected if racist people suddenly abandoned the Democratic Party in favor of the Republican Party.
The truth is, voting patterns in the South did not shift much following the Civil Rights period.
β’ Democrats continued to dominate Senate, House, and Gubernatorial elections for decades. Alabama did not elect a GOP governor until 1986. Mississippi? 1991. Georgia? 2002.
β’ Democrats continued to dominate Senate, House, and Gubernatorial elections for decades. Alabama did not elect a GOP governor until 1986. Mississippi? 1991. Georgia? 2002.
So how did the switch propaganda emerge? β’ It is based on another destructive myth about Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" during his 1968 presidential campaign, which was accused of secretly leveraging white voters' natural prejudice.
β’ Democrats refer to Republican Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, in which he refused to support the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as evidence that the GOP was aggressively wooing racist southern supporters. Was his "States' Rights" platform code for segregation's return?
β’ Goldwater was a strong supporter of black Americans' civil rights, voting in favor of the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts and even helped organize Arizona's NAACP branch. His opposition to the 1964 Act was due to his view on federal governments impinging on state sovereignty.
β’ The Lyndon B. Johnson campaign capitalized on Goldwater's viewpoint and released an ad named "Confessions of a Republican" at the height of the 1964 campaign, which very illogically linked Goldwater to the Ku Klux Klan (which, remember, was a Democratic organization).
β’ The ad helped Johnson win by the largest margin since 1920, and it demonstrated to Democrats for the first time that charging Republicans of racism (despite the lack of proof) was a powerful political tool. Have you ever heard the saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it?"
β’ For all of Nixon's alleged love for southern racists (who continued to vote for Democrats in Senate and House contests that same year), he almost lost the entire South to a DemocratβGeorge Wallace, who won five states and 46 electoral votes.
"Segregation now and forever"
"Segregation now and forever"
β’ The allegedly racist Republicans who voted for Nixon in 1972 also voted for the re-election of Democratic Senators in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The GOP gained just 8 southern House seats despite Nixon's record 520 electoral votes.
β’ In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton divided the southern states with Bush, and in 1996, with Bob Dole.
β’ Democrats continued to win House, Senate, and Gubernatorial elections. Only in 2000 did southern voters unanimously back a GOP presidential candidate in the Electoral College
β’ Democrats continued to win House, Senate, and Gubernatorial elections. Only in 2000 did southern voters unanimously back a GOP presidential candidate in the Electoral College
β’ This shift was a gradual, decades-long transition rather than a rapid "shift" in reaction to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. If racism really made the South Republican, why did it take 30 years for those racist voters to give the GOP a majority of Southern House seats?
β’ The true cause for the Republican hold in the South was Republicans Richard Nixon in 1972, and Ronald Reagan who made conservatism appealing in 1980 and 1984.
If the old Democrat segregationists suddenly "convert" to the Republican Party, it definitely took a long time.
If the old Democrat segregationists suddenly "convert" to the Republican Party, it definitely took a long time.
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