I hate to say it, for once, Salon.com, got it right:
For a century after the Civil War, the South was deeply and overwhelmingly Democratic, a consequence of the “humiliation” visited upon white Southerners by the Republican-initiated Reconstruction that followed the Civil War. The level of support enjoyed by Democratic candidates in the region is almost too astronomical to fathom now. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson took 42 percent of the vote nationally in a four-way presidential contest. But in South Carolina, he snared 95 percent. In Mississippi, 88 percent. While he was grabbing 60 percent nationally in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt scored 97 percent in Mississippi and nearly 99 percent in South Carolina. The region’s congressional delegation was uniformly Democratic — and, thanks to the South’s one-party status, disproportionately influential, with lifelong incumbents taking advantage of the congressional seniority system to secure the most powerful committee gavels.
For decades, they comfortably coexisted in the national Democratic Party’s other major source of support, the machine-folk of the urban North. But as civil rights became a national issue — and as the Great Migration of Southern blacks to the cities of the North and West turned civil rights into a priority for Democrats outside the South — the coalition began to splinter. When the party ratified a civil rights plank at its 1948 convention, Southern Democrats staged a walkout and lined up behind Strom Thurmond, South Carolina’s governor and (like all Southern Democrats of the time) an arch-segregationist. Running under the Dixiecrat banner, Thurmond won four Deep South states that fall.
Throughout the ’50s and early ’60s, Southern Democrats sat in political limbo. Their national brethren were inching their way toward a full-on embrace of civil rights, but the GOP wasn’t much of an alternative, not with Dwight Eisenhower endorsing integration and not with the party’s Northern-dominated congressional ranks strongly backing civil rights legislation.
1964, though, is what changed everything. In signing the Civil Rights Act, LBJ cemented the Democrats as a civil rights party. And in nominating anti-civil rights Barry Goldwater for president (instead of pro-civil rights Nelson Rockefeller) the GOP cast its future fortunes with the white electorate of the South. LBJ trounced Goldwater nationally that fall, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote. But in the South, voters flocked to the Republican nominee, with Goldwater carrying five states in the region. Mississippi, the same state that had given FDR 97 percent of its votes 28 years earlier, now gave Goldwater 87 percent. That fall, Thurmond, now a senator, renounced his Democratic affiliation once and for all and signed up for Goldwater’s GOP. The realignment was well underway, and it had everything to do with race.
First of all, let me say this; yes, this article is true. As is the premise of the article as well. Now, seeing what I am being accused of, I will let forth another revelation. Do I think that this a good thing? No, I do not. Here is why; just like in the Democratic Party, where they have played upon the fears among the black community, that the Tea Party are bunch of “White Racist Bigots”, like they were called by some liberal idiot actress — the Republicans played that same game back in the 1950 and to a bigger extent in the 1960’s. This was the second time, that they played that idiotic game. The first time, was back in the 1930’s after the stock market crash. This mainly happened after FDR went into office and the Republicans lost a good deal of seats in the House and Senate. These people became known as the “Old Right,” or the Taft Republicans. Named for the Senator, Robert Taft. They were and are still commonly referred to as the “Taft Wing” of the Republican Party; anti-new deal, Anti-FDR, Isolationists —- all that. Yes, they are still around; some familiar names — Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and many more.
I said all that to say this; as I have written before on this blog any times, politics is a sewer. There are people, in both of these parties, that would sell out a political or ideological stance; or even capitalize on a public fear, just so they can get elected. This has been happening since the founding of America and since the time that political parties were started. The Democrats did it in the past, and the Republicans have done it too. The problem is now, that the GOP wants to rewrite their own damned history, just for the purpose of political expediency. They believe that now that Obama is not doing very well in the polls and the midterms are coming; that they will be able to clear the Bush hurdle and possible take the midterms. Something that they could do very well, if they would be a bit more honest and up front about their past. Sorry folks, there is nothing wrong with a political party saying, “Hey, you know, we were wrong about all that a long time ago.”
To clearly understand all of the above; one must take the camera lens and pull back about 10 good feet and look at that only thing in it’s historical context. You have remember, that there a good number of scared white people in the south. The Klan backed segregation movement had been defeated. The Federal Government had ordered integration in the south. There were white people in Alabama, Georgia and many other states in the south, that were deathly afraid that the black populace was going to rise up and drag the white folk out of their houses, kill them, and take their possessions. Did the Republican Party capitalize on those fears. You bet they did! Did it ever happen? No. But it did get many of a Republicans voted for in the south.
Not much of it has changed; back then, they had booklets like “Red Channels.” Nowadays, we have a thing called the Blogosphere! Same game, same fears, same two parties. Just the surroundings have changed a bit. We have laptops and desktops; instead of typewriters. We have RSS feeds, instead of newspapers. We have Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Ed Schultz; back then there was just Ed Murrow and McCarthy. They are still yelling at one another and getting ratings. Not much as changed at all. One side is fighting for supposed “Equality”, the other is on some sort of Messianic mission to save the world from Communism. None of it has ever changed; just the methods have changed a bit. But it is that struggle, I believe, that makes America the great nation that it is. That is the debate that sets us apart from other Countries —- Federalism vs Anti-Federalism. Conservative vs Liberal. The very right to be able to debate is unique one to this Nation.
Admittedly, in the last two years; things got a bit one sided in Government. One party was driven to the wilderness for a bit. However, in 2010, this is about to fix itself. That is the wonderful thing about America; our political balance always rights itself.
…..and we are a greater Nation for it.
