Posted on 04/18/2013 2:14:07 PM PDT by Epsdude
Sorry for this unusual post. I'm probably the youngest one this site so you can imagine I've got a lot to learn in politics, but one thing has always puzzled me.
I know that Republicans broke away from the Whigs to oppose the pro-slavery Democrats but the change in party demographics since then has perplexed me.
I recently saw this picture: http://manwiththemuckrake.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/slavery-2012.jpg
I'm just curious, what caused such a radical shift in the solid south? Some people accredit this to an 'ideological party switch' but that seems rather implausible to me. So what did cause this arbitrary shift and, also why did the black vote slowly drift over to the Democrats?
Thanks.
The shift all has everything to do with “freebies” at taxpayer’s expense.
Abortion and social conservatism, and patriotism, led Southern conservatives into the Republican party as the democrats became a party of social liberalism, anti-Americanism, and government, and continued racism.
The white south almost always voted Democratic because they associated Republicans with Lincoln. The major shift began in 1964, when Johnson supported the Civil Rights Act and Goldwater opposed it.
FDR happened
I was having computer issues also and missed the part about blacks, I thought that you meant white southerners.
The switch for blacks was instant and took place in 1936.
1932 was a normal election with blacks going about 71% republican, they had always voted republican before that, but in 1936 blacks switched to about 71% democrat, and they have voted democrat ever since.
It would probably take a long explanation, possibly a very long one but for my family it was Jimmy Carter.
My Father was a Yellow Dog Democrat as was his Father before him. When I was young in the 50s and 60s, winning the Democratic primary meant you won the race. This was in the Florida Panhandle.
I think Lyndon Johnson and his regime probably made him begin to doubt but Jimmy Carter sent him over the edge. It was about that time that this area also began to have a real two party system.
Ideological party switch. The ideologies of the two main parties diverged in the 1960s. The Democrats became the party of centralized government and government spending. The Republicans became the party of small government and individual liberties.
(I know that both parties are prolific spenders, just pointing out the ideological differences)
As the parties started redefining themselves through those visions, the Republican party started becoming the party of the pro-life movement, gun rights advocates, and pro-Christian heritage. The Democrat party started becoming the party of pro-choice, gun control, and post-Christian modernism.
By the mid-80s, most of the pro-life, pro-gun, Christian Democrats in the south felt betrayed by their party and switched (see Zell Miller). Many of those who were New England Republicans are now New England Democrats for the same reason.
As for blacks switching to the Democrat party, the late 60s is where you want to look. In the early 60s, the Republicans pushed through the Civil Rights Acts (granted, Kennedy was a firm supporter, but most Democrats were not). But Johnson saw that he could essentially buy the black vote by creating a welfare state that would be self-sustaining. His ‘War on Poverty’ and ‘New Society’ initiatives poured money into the poor black communities and the vast majority of blacks switched party loyalties.
“I’m just curious, what caused such a radical shift in the solid south?”
Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forced integration, and school busing created the red south.
This video will catch you up to date as to what is now so just pick a subject form the video and backtrack a bit to your interests.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtCb45Lqt0&feature=related
Nope. The Republicans were the new face of the Know Nothings. They were not anti-slavery Whigs. The Whigs that merged into the Republican party were mainly the hard core central bank/protective tariff/corporate welfare Whigs (of which Lincoln was a fervent member). A few other weird northern parties, such as the Anti-Mason party, also threw in their lot. The unifying theme of the Republican party was that it was a pro North and anti South, a purely sectional party. On every issue the Republican party aligned itself with the interests of the North. The party didn't even run any candidates in the South. The legend that the Republican party was somehow an anti-slavery party was invented after the war.
First of all, though many are horrified by this suggestion, Dems and Repub principles essentially flip-flopped c1915. Sorry, but Repubs were the statists.
Then, stubborn Southerners, unable to let go of the Civil War especially if they or their parents had any history with it, refused to recognize this fact long after. Grandchildren and so on finally starting seeing this generations later. Hence the growth toward Repubs.
May you also note how Northeast was the Repub, and has long been known as commie Dems.
There is a reason for this. They are not the same parties.
As the Democrats -- once the agrarian, free trade party, then the party of the poorer South and West -- became more urban and liberal, the outlying areas of the South started to drift to the Republicans: Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Florida.
The Deep South was Democrat until the Second Reconstruction -- the civil rights movement and civil rights acts of the 1960s -- or even later if we're talking about Congressional delegations.
As the older Senators and Congressmen died off and their seniority was lost, Southern states moved more firmly into the Republican column for ideological reasons, the Republicans having become the party of less government.
See Alan Stang’s GOP: Red From The Start...
Semper Trvth !!!!!
*****
Hey, what happened to FL?
They supported a stronger federal government back when no federal government would be as powerful as it is today.
But Democrats found their own ways to be "statist" back then, whether we're talking about Jim Crow or W.J. Bryan's plan to nationalize the railroads.
The Democrats, who used to call themselves "The Party of Personal Liberty", went over to the dark side in 1896 when they nominated the Progressive William Jennings Bryan.
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