Southern strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the focus of the Republican party on winning U.S. Presidential elections by securing the electoral votes of the U.S. Southern states. It is also used in a more general sense, in which cultural (especially racial) themes are used in an election in the American South. The use of the term, and its meaning and implication, are still hotly disputed.
Pre-History of the Southern Strategy
Prior to the 1960s, both parties were much more mixed, ideologically and geographically, than they are today. The Democratic party contained both a progressive, Northern/Midwestern bloc and a conservative Southern bloc. Republicans were also split ideologically, including a conservative activist base as well as a liberal wing from the Northeast.
In 1948, a group of Democratic congresspeople, led by Senator Strom Thurmond, split from the Democrats in reaction to an anti-segregation speech given by Senator Hubert Humphrey, founding the States Rights Democratic or Dixiecrat Party, which ran Senator Thurmond as its presidential candidate. The Dixiecrats, failing to deny the Democrats the presidency in 1948, soon dissolved, but the split lingered. It was revivified by Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential candidate. Goldwater was notably more conservative than previous Republican nominees like Dwight Eisenhower; Goldwater's opponent in the primary election, Nelson Rockefeller, was widely seen as representing the more moderate, Northern wing of the party. Rockefeller's defeat in the primary is seen as the beginning of the end for moderates and liberals in the Republican party.
Roots of the Southern Strategy
At this point, the debate begins. The facts are this: in the 1964 presidential race, Goldwater adopted an extremely conservative stance. In particular, he emphasized the issue of what he called "states' rights". As a conservative, Goldwater did not favor strong action by the federal government--for instance, he strongly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the grounds that, first, it was an intrusion of the federal government into the affairs of states and second, it was an interference with the rights of private persons to do business, or not, with whomever they chose. This was a popular stand in the Southern states, and was widely understood at the time to be a tactic designed to appeal to racist Southern white voters. The only states that Goldwater won in 1964, excepting his native Arizona, were in the heart of the deep South.
The Southern Strategy was deployed even more effectively by Richard Nixon in the election of 1968. Nixon, with the aid of still-Senator Thurmond, ran on a campaign of states' rights and "law and order". They managed to deny Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, every single state in the old Confederacy except for Texas (all states that the Democrats had habitually won); the rest were taken by Nixon or George Wallace, a third-party candidate. Meanwhile, Nixon parlayed a wide perception as a moderate into wins in other states, taking a solid majority in the electoral college. That is why the election of 1968 is sometimes cited as a realigning election.
Evolution of the Southern Strategy
As civil rights grew more accepted throughout the nation, basing a general election strategy on appeals to "states' rights" as a naked play against civil rights laws grew less effective; there was a greater danger of a national backlash. Nevertheless, in 1980, when Reagan announced his presidential candidacy with a speech in support of states rights, he did so in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a small town whose only historic significance was as the site of the murder of three civil rights advocates in 1964. Reagan went on to make a speech praising Jefferson Davis, the strongly pro-slavery president of the Confederacy and states rights advocate, at Stone Mountain, Georgia, site of the founding of the modern Klan. An appeal to racism may have played a role in subsequent Republican races for the House and Senate in the South, most notably in the races of figures like Jesse Helms. The Willie Horton commercials used by supporters of George H.W. Bush in the election of 1988 may also have been such an appeal, and the appointment of John Ashcroft to attorney general of the USA. The memory of the Dixiecrats lingers, as in remarks of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on the hundredth birthday of Strom Thurmond. At a party given in Thurmond's honor, Senator Lott avowed admiration for the Dixiecrats. Republican leaders disavowed Lott's remarks, but the result storm of criticism cost Lott his Senate leadership position.
Leaving aside all questions of race, the Republicans have continued to modify the Southern strategy. As racism became less politically palatable as a lone motivator, it was augmented by divisions based on other cultural issues like abortion, school prayer, or funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. These cultural differences are emphasized rather than economic issues including tariffs, federal job spending, and so on (with the single exception of taxes). They play on perceived and actual cultural differences between the South and other parts of the nation; the South is seen as more religious and traditional than, say, New England. An example of this new iteration of the Southern strategy can be seen in this quote from Pat Buchanan, a famously conservative political pundit, in which he denounces John Kerry (the Democratic contender for President) as:
- ...a Massachusetts liberal who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, backs civil unions for homosexuals, voted to defend the infanticide known as partial-birth abortion and wants to raise the federal income taxes that George Bush lowered. [1]
The strategy can be seen in the phrase "Massachusetts liberal", emphasizing Kerry's supposed cultural alienness to the South, and in the emphasis on cultural, rather than economic, issues. A 2004 book by Thomas Frank, entitled What's the Matter With Kansas?, revolves around the rise of cultural issues as a Republican strategy.