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.
Ann Coulter put it succinctly,”The South went Republican when the Democratic Party went nuts”
Florida has been going back and forth for the last few elections.
It is really in many ways two states. If you divided Florida by say making a line E/W about at Orlando. Everything North of their would be very conservative and South would be really liberal.
There would be spots or counties in both sections which would go against the rule but basically that would be correct.
I can’t believe I wrote their to refer to a place. I know perfectly well how to use their, there, and they’re but constantly find myself using them wrong.
The percentage is hardly the story ~ by 1990 black voters had actually become about 40% of the Democrat vote overall, and in areas controlled by Democrats black voters controlled the party (through back politicians).
Blacks are today THE DEMOCRAT PARTY itself.
The point of the picture is to imply that they all track the same thing: racial animosity. It ought to be obvious that this is misleading, as the voting pattern of the 2012 election is quite similar to those of 2004 and 2000 (and 1996 and 1992) where race was not an issue.
Republicans gained the South slowly, from the outside in. This happened as the hard-core racist Democrats became more and more of a social embarrassment.
As to why blacks are such a one-party block, there are many reasons: freebies from FDR and LBJ, principled-yet-unattractive opposition to the Civil Rights Act by conservatives (even though a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted to pass it), and the rise of the racial grievances industry in the wake of the Civil Rights Act. The CRA did break the Democrat’s machine in the South, but the captive votes of welfare recipients kept them competitive nationally, as LBJ hoped.
Check out http://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/ to see ALL the elections. 1964 was a disaster politically and for the credibility of Republicans on civil rights, but as you can see from 1968 and 1976, the parties did not suddenly ‘switch sides.’ As I said, the hold of the ‘Good Ol’ Boys’ had to be pried away slowly.
Oh, and as you mention being young, I should mention that despite what you were taught in public school, both President Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were Republicans. :)
You have obviously not taken an American History class....or read ANY books about the development of the country....more’s the shame.
For the record since the 1970s the south has on a federal level voted pretty reliably republican ( at least for president). The south is full of folks who believe in states rights, many of whom are still mad about Lincoln ( not all though), and who believe in local politics. Unfortunately too many of them in times past have voted the ‘family tradition’ instead of what is best for them. The republicans turned the view point around with Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. This is not a RADICAL shift is was the realization that the left had moved so far into communist territory that they wanted none of it.
Do some reading it will help you out in the long run
tater, I remember my parents paying “Poll Tax” in the 1950s and early 60s. That tax also kept poor whites from voting.
In the 70s I used to go to a doctor’s office that still had black and white waiting rooms.
Dusty, I think LBJ said that after he appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.
Don’t forget that Teddy Roosevelt, former Republican president, formed a third party because the GOP wasn’t Progressive enough for him. Progressivism afflicted both parties then, and still does today.
I’m in the only blue county north of Orlando. (Alachua)
I grew up in segregated Indianapolis ~ that ended about 1950 when I was still a little kid, but my grandmother used to take me downtown and back and we'd sit in back of the bus with the black people, and she'd dare the drivers to bust her.
Back when her and my grandfather first moved to Naptown the KKK ran the state. The house they bought had been owned by a KKK guy and the coal box basement was filled with his KKK literature. She said she enjoyed using it to light the furnace in the mornings!
Years later I discovered the murdered girl named Madge Oberholzer had lived in our neighborhood ~ her death ignited a shock wave of public indignation that destroyed the KKK in Indiana. Later on, DC Stephenson, their former leader got out of jail and they moved him to Seymour, Indiana for his parole. My other grandmother, a staunch Republican voter, hit the ceiling on that. She didn't even believe DC should have walked out of the courtroom alive and there he was where she had to see him on the public streets.
Desegregation occurred first in the North ~ in the Midwest where it'd been as enshrined in law as it had been in the South.
That spread to the Mid-South, then the Deep South.
Along the way there were some burned out buses, murdered young people, laws changed, riots held, verbal exchanges passed around ~ and in the end the Republican and Democrat parties were forever after changed and in surprising, totally unexpected ways.
1950’s ‘Southern Strategy’ pulled non-racist Democrats away from the bloc, threatening the slave party’s hegemony. Their () response brought back plantations and here we deal with it.
Congrats.
That is pretty good then if 13% of the electorate can become the democrat party.
I used to always enjoy going to Alachua County. Every year our coach would drive us down to Florida for the State Track Meet. We would always stay in a motel in High Springs.
Still remember dressing in that huge old brick building with the gym in it. Coach Ray Graves used to have football players running some of the field events. Steve Spurrier was doing one, I think the long jump.
I guess it is all those college professors who tend to make it so Democratic. I would not be surprised if Leon County is also Blue.
George Wallace was a democrat who ran for president in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976, the only time he did not run as a democrat was for the 1968 election, when he tried third party.
See post 25.
Aside from the school, Gainesville is a dump. I’m right by Shands, so if I get shot or stabbed I might live...which is nice.
I’m in engineering, so the professors seem more conservative. I’ve never had a single professor make a political comment though.
Huh? Speaking for Texas, I didn't see it that way, it wasn't yankee immigration and Cubans that turned Texas republican, it was the natural conservatism of Texas and the democrats moving left and the GOP becoming seen as more conservative.
I was in Gainesville back in 63, 64 and 65 then returned again in the 70s for the Florida Relays. It was really nice back then.
I remember seeing “From Russia With Love” in probably 64. There was a line all the way around the corner to get in. Also a Corvette about every 5th vehicle. I bet there were more 63s with the split rear window than Jay Leno could buy at today’s prices.
That way that 13% can account for 40% or more of the controlling Democrat party's vote!
If black voters could be forced to relocate to balance the electorate, they'd disappear as an identifiable political faction of consequence!
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