I saw it differently. Essentially, over time the Republicans won the argument on race.
So once that was eliminated from the equation, people shifted parties based on national security issues especially as well as economic ones. Anti-communists among the Dems shifted to the GOP.
The Dems continue to be the party obsessed by race, and determined to re-write their history. And with their history, who can blame them?
The Times acts like only Nixon’s strategy sent Southern Whites to the GOP. They forget that in Mississippi Goldwater won by a landslide! And that was in 1964 which was a whole term before Nixon won his narrow victory over Humphrey in 1968.