Quote:
Originally Posted by saden1
Only by name, not ideology. It's actually pretty fascinating how the transformation took place. The party of Lincoln is a nice marketing slogan though. |
Race was certainly a major factor in the transformation of southern voting patterns, but abortion, the drug culture, sexual liberation, and the idea that the Democratic Party sort of looks down on religion were also important. It's tempting for Democrats to pretend that the switch was merely the result of the racism of white southerners, but these other issues are critical as well.
In addition, I think there has been an attempt to convince people that the Democrats have always been for racial justice. Not so. I beleive that of the 27 votes against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 22 were Democrats. Every Senator from the old south (save Ralph Yarborough of Texas), plus Robert Byrd of West Virginia comprised that 22. The Democrats had a southern strategy and benefitted from it greatly long before the Republicans did.
From Wiki:
By party and region
Note : "Southern", as used in this section, refers to members of Congress from the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. "Northern" refers to members from the other 39 states, regardless of the geographic location of those states.
The original House version:
- Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
- Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)
- Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
- Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)
The Senate version:
Ralph Yarborough had an interesting career. Democrats in Texas attempted to play the race card way back in the day. Again from Wiki:
Ralph Yarborough was urged to run again for state attorney general in 1952, and he planned to do so until he received a personal affront by Governor Allan Shivers who told him not to run. Out of spite, Ralph Yarborough then ran in the primaries for governor in 1952 and 1954 against the conservative Shivers, drawing support from
labor unions and
liberals. Yarborough denounced the corrupt "
Shivercrats" for veterans' fraud in the General Land Office and for endorsing the Republican Eisenhower/Nixon ticket for President instead of Democrat
Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Shivers portrayed Yarborough as an integrationist supported by communists and labor unions. The 1954 election was particularly nasty in its race-baiting by Shivers as it was the year that
Brown v. Board of Education was decided, and Shivers made the most of the court decision in order to play on voters' racism.
In one particularly odious episode, a black man was hired to drive around East Texas in a Cadillac full of Yarborough stickers and to be obnoxious and insult gas station attendants. The man would say he was busy and had to hurry "to work for Mr. Yarborough." Yarborough made it to the primary runoff and came surprisingly close to beating Shivers despite receiving almost no newspaper endorsements, being out-fundraised, and being the target of nasty attacks