Rebuttal to response on roots of racism op-ed
“Fake News” alert! Jay Tittman’s response to my Jan. 4th op-ed contained a popular myth in need of a prompt rebuttal.
Tittman’s reference to the Nixon/Goldwater “Southern Strategy” in the 1968 Presidential Election, which was designed to garner Republican votes from racist Southerners. Once again, this is a popular myth.
In 1969, Kevin Phillips chronicled the 1968 campaign in his seminal book, “The Emerging Republican Majority.” Phillips wrote that the Nixon campaign knew that any benefits from a racially charged message to the deep South would alienate voters across the nation. So instead, Nixon focused on a more prosperity based message to the upper South to appeal to a rising middle class in those states.
Racists in the South had their candidate in Gov. George Wallace, a Democrat running as an independent. Wallace won five states in the deep south (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia) with Nixon garnering over 300 electoral votes in an electoral landslide.
Barry Goldwater opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act because he believed it constituted an overreach into the private sector. Goldwater voted for the 1957 Civil Rights Act. He was also active in integrating the Phoenix public schools and had been a founding member of the Arizona NAACP.
My Jan. 4th op-ed was the first half of the story covering the events of the 19th century. The second half covers the 20th century. Rest assured, there was plenty of material for me to work with.
Thus far the responses to my op-ed have been fairly well mannered, but have reinforced my opinion that the information I’ve shared needs to be more vigorously disseminated. Todd Peterson Washington Depot