Question #ffd27
2 Answers
It refers to the strategy used by Republican candidates to attract the votes of racist southern whites
Explanation:
After the end of segregation, the Republican Party carried the votes of Southern states which had been traditionally supportive of the Democratic Party. The latter had opposed desegregation, and after Johnson and Kennedy fought against segregation, they shifted their support. The Republican Party had no scruple in accepting the votes of racist whites. They satisfied this electorate without getting into racial debates.
The Southern Strategy is a Theory for why the Democratic Party lost control of the South.
Explanation:
To a great degree this theory is a myth perpetuated by the Democratic Party to denigrate the Republican Party.
The efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to pass the Civil Right Laws did much to end segregation. The passing of the Civil rights acts did alienate many of the Southern Whites that had traditionally voted democratic.
However many of these voters in the the 1968 elections that put Richard Nixon into the white house voted for splinter Democrats like George Wallace. The alienated 'racists " whites were still democrats.
The white voters in the southern states did not vote Republican in the 1068 election.
After the election of Richard Nixon the level of segrated schools in the south went from 90% to 9%. These are not the actions of a Republican Party secretly planning to secure the votes of racist whites in the south.
The Republican Party had traditionally be more in favor of states rights and opposed to the increase in federal power. This position of limited government appealed to the voters in the south that had fought the Civil not only on the issue of slavery but also for their belief in States Rights.
It is cynically to claim that the traditional emphasis on states rights by the Republican Party was somehow a "code" for racism. However many of the people who were racist were also in favor of limited government giving some legitimacy to the claim of a Southern Strategy by the Republican Party.
