Southern Strategy
Mr. Michael Sanders claims the Republican Party is viewed as racist because the Democrats dishonestly transferred the racist legacy by promoting the “myth” that Richard Nixon employed the Southern Strategy to win the U.S. presidency in 1968. There is a lot to be said to refute what he is claiming, but I will try to keep it brief. In 1964, shortly after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, the Republican convention nominated Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater to be its candidate against the incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwater was one of only six Republicans not to vote for the Civil Rights Act that year, and many in his party felt he would appeal to the great number of Southern white voters who strongly opposed that law and further legislation along that line. As it turned out, Goldwater would indeed flip five Southern states that had previously been solid Democratic states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. He narrowly won his home state of Arizona but lost every other state and the presidential election by a wide margin.
In 1968, Nixon’s strategy was not to take the South because he understood those states would go to third-party candidate George Wallace. By the time the 1972 election rolled around, Nixon expanded his strategy to take the South by including stands for states’ rights, law and order, opposition to abortion, and aligning himself with Billy Graham and the Southern Baptists. He ended up actually winning every state except Massachusetts because Sen. George McGovern was viewed as too far left.
So, I disagree with Mr. Sanders that the Democrats had anything to do with the reputation the Republicans may have, but I do believe the election of Donald Trump has transformed the party’s identity. Finally, for further information and understanding of this topic, I’d like to recommend the very informative book “The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics” by University of Arkansas professors Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields. It is a well-written and thoroughly documented book that expounds on this topic.
STEVE EASTON Fayetteville