How Republicans convinced racists to join their party
- McQueen
- Apr 26, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 27, 2024
The racist “Southern Strategy” by Republicans to win the South
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One Page Summaries debunking big lies of political talking points
DEFINE: The Southern Strategy was a “not so secret” plan to use race coded phrases called “dog whistles” to gain the support of anti-black whites in the South. One example of a dog whistle is talking about “states rights” or “busing”, on the issue of segregation of blacks, instead of mentioning segregation.
THE LIE: In widely distributed video produced by PragerU (not a real University), Carol Swain, Retired Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University falsely claims through many misdirections and simplifications that the Southern Strategy used by Republicans to take over the South from Democrats is a Myth. This lie is another effort to get people to believe that Republicans did not have any racist plans, and that there is no longer any racism, and that the Democrats are still the party of slavery and racism. In addition, Professor Swain falsely says the1960 Civil Rights Act got rid of the Poll Tax, when it was the 24th Amendment in 1964 that prohibited any Poll Tax.
Source: PragerU, Why Did the Democratic South Become Republican? - https://youtu.be/UiprVX4os2Y
Source: PragerU, The Inconvenient Truth About the Democratic Party - https://youtu.be/g_a7dQXilCo
Source: Knowing better, Political Ships of Theseus | The Party Switch @6:41 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwuFIJlY7fU&t=1049s
PROOF#1
THE MEMO TO NIXON: memo titled: re: “Southern Strategy” …
Source: 1969 memo to Nixon from former Strom Thurmond aide Harry Dent regarding the “Southern Strategy” Dec, 11, 1969. Nixon Library
PROOF#2:
Monday April 28, 1969, Haldeman noted in diary: “President emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the Blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”
Source: nixonlibrary.org Haldeman diaries
PROOF#3 THE ATWATER TAPE:
The person who drove this strategy to get Reagan elected, admitted to using alternate policy words that convey racial meaning i.e.: “dog whistle” or “race baiting” on audio tape in 1983. In 1981, Lee Atwater lays out how Republicans won the vote of racists.
“You start out in 1954 by saying, “N**ger, n**ger, n**ger.” By 1968 you can’t say “n**ger”—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**ger, n**ger.”
Source: Pearlstein Audio-analysis: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/
Source: Audio in: The Nation: Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s infamous 1981 Interview … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_8E3ENrKrQ
Many southerners still voted Republican only for President, but Democrats stayed in power in local, state, and House politics well into the 1970’s. The Democratic Party power structure was so ingrained with the House, that many Representatives had to die or retire before they would give up their appointments to powerful committees in the Dem. Majority controlled House. Since 1964, maps show the south consistently Red except for Carter … starting in the 1980’s people started voting consistently for the Republicans as their special life time relationships with their favorite Dixiecrats faded away. Since then, the south has mostly been Republican in local, House, Senate and in Presidential Elections.
Source: Interactive Map Electors every year: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2008
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