Dems always bring up the so-called "Southern Strategy" as if Nixon tricked Southerners into voting for him.
The fact is patriotic Southerners had had it with the growing drift of Dems into raging leftists. In 1972 there was no way patriotic Southerners were going to vote for George McGovern who represented a party that had tilted leftwards almost completely off its axis.
In short, the tale of the evil "Southern Strategy" is a complete fraud. There's no way conservative Southerners were going to support an increasingly leftist Dem party. Dems are still confounded by that simple reality.