MidwesternGro
Well-Known Member
The Southern strategy was a concerted effort by Republicans to appeal to racism against African Americans in the South. The Republicans, much like the Nazis, rose to power by scapegoating a hated minority.
The South voted democrat at one time, but civil rights legislation pushed by the Democrats in the 1960s allowed Republicans to capitalize by appealing to hatred against black people. The Republicans pushed segregation and Jim Crow laws in order to win the votes of racists. They won the South, but also lost a huge majority of black voters. Echoes of this can be seen today with Republicans being against social safety nets because minorities might "get something."
According to Wikipedia:
"In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the NAACP for ignoring the black vote and exploiting racial conflicts."
This strategy caused much suffering in African American communities.
"Atwater on the Southern Strategy
As a member of the Reagan administration in 1981, Atwater gave an anonymous interview to political scientist Alexander P. Lamis. Part of the interview was printed in Lamis's book The Two-Party South, then reprinted in Southern Politics in the 1990s with Atwater's name revealed. Bob Herbert reported on the interview in the October 6, 2005, edition of the New York Times. On November 13, 2012, The Nation magazine released what it claimed to be audio of the full interview.[SUP][7][/SUP] James Carter IV, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, had asked and been granted access to these tapes by the widow of the recently deceased interviewer, Mr. Lamis. Atwater talked about the Republican Southern Strategy and Ronald Reagan's version of it:
The South voted democrat at one time, but civil rights legislation pushed by the Democrats in the 1960s allowed Republicans to capitalize by appealing to hatred against black people. The Republicans pushed segregation and Jim Crow laws in order to win the votes of racists. They won the South, but also lost a huge majority of black voters. Echoes of this can be seen today with Republicans being against social safety nets because minorities might "get something."
According to Wikipedia:
"In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the NAACP for ignoring the black vote and exploiting racial conflicts."
This strategy caused much suffering in African American communities.
"Atwater on the Southern Strategy
As a member of the Reagan administration in 1981, Atwater gave an anonymous interview to political scientist Alexander P. Lamis. Part of the interview was printed in Lamis's book The Two-Party South, then reprinted in Southern Politics in the 1990s with Atwater's name revealed. Bob Herbert reported on the interview in the October 6, 2005, edition of the New York Times. On November 13, 2012, The Nation magazine released what it claimed to be audio of the full interview.[SUP][7][/SUP] James Carter IV, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, had asked and been granted access to these tapes by the widow of the recently deceased interviewer, Mr. Lamis. Atwater talked about the Republican Southern Strategy and Ronald Reagan's version of it:
Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn't have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he's campaigned on since 1964 and that's fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.
Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "N*gger, n*gger, n*gger." By 1968 you can't say "n*gger" that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N*gger, n*gger."[SUP][8][/SUP][SUP][9][/SUP]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater#Atwater_on_the_Southern_Strategy
Is it really any surprise that vulnerable minorities don't trust a political party that hates them? As I type this, the Republican party continues its soft pogrom against blacks and is now shifting its sights on religious minorities. The Republicans are trying to exploit the hate against religions other than Christianity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater#Atwater_on_the_Southern_Strategy
Is it really any surprise that vulnerable minorities don't trust a political party that hates them? As I type this, the Republican party continues its soft pogrom against blacks and is now shifting its sights on religious minorities. The Republicans are trying to exploit the hate against religions other than Christianity.
