Southern strategy

In American politics, the Southern Strategy refers to a specific tactic used by the Republican party to win elections (especially U.S. Presidential elections) in the U.S. Southern states. The use of the term, and its meaning and implication, are still hotly disputed.

Pre-History of the Southern Strategy

The following facts are undisputable: prior to the 1960s, both parties were much more mixed, ideologically, than they are currently. For instance, the Democratic party contained both a progressive, Nothern/Midwestern bloc and a conservative Southern bloc. Republicans were also split ideologically. All this really began to change during the 1960s.

One of the first indicators of the splits in the parties came with the nomination of Barry Goldwater by the Republicans in 1964. 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 "state's rights". As a conservative, Goldwater did not favor strong action by the federal government--for instance (though not a racist personally), he strongly opposed federal civil rights legislation. This was a popular stand in the Southern states; whether or not this was specifically a tactic designed to appeal to racist Southern white voters is a matter of debate. Regardless, the only states that Goldwater won in 1964 were the heart of the deep South.

The Southern Strategy was deployed even more effectively by Richard Nixon in the election of 1968. Nixon, running on a campaign of state's rights, managed to deny Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, every single state in the old Confederacy except for Texas; 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 "state's rights" as a naked play against civil rights laws grew less effective; there was a greater danger of a national backlash. Nevertheless, the strategy still played a major role in Republican races for the House and Senate in the South, most notably in the races of figures like Jesse Helms. Some charge that Republicans are still willing to play the race card, citing examples like the Willie Horton commercials used by George H.W. Bush in the election of 1988.

Leaving aside all questions of race, the Republicans have continued to modify the Southern strategy. As race has receded, it has been replaced by a division 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 like tariffs, federal job spending, and so on. 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 Robertson, a famously conservative evangelical preacher, in which he denounces John Kerry (a 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.