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Post by killer on May 24, 2007 14:41:28 GMT -5
Not sure if that's a good title. Anyway, supposedly, years ago the South voted Democrat and the North Republican. What caused the reversal we have today?
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Post by W.O.M.I on May 24, 2007 19:31:45 GMT -5
Part of the reason was the booming economy after WW2.
With so many white men in the military, the jobs they had before joining or being drafted when to women first and then blacks, who were at the time prohibited from serving in combat (though they did serve behind the lines and at home). Because there were so many jobs and so few workers, wages rose and people made a TON of money.
In fact. the wages allowed many formerly very poor blacks to leave the south and migrate north, getting good jobs in heavy industries like steel making, automotive, shipbuilding and the like. Once the war ended, many blacks stayed in the north and kept- or tried to keep- those jobs.
Flash forward a few years to JFK and the Civil Rights Movement.
Democrats were given credit for passing the Civil Rights legislation of the early 1960s- this despite George Wallace and Bull Connor being Democrats and the Congressmen who gave the legislation the margin it needed to pass being Republicans. Blacks switched allegiance en masse- understandably, given their perception of who had helped them.
That's part of it anyway.
As to the North being largely Republican, it's a different kind of Republican; effete, snobbish, country-club types: the Northeastern Moderate (read; liberal) Republicans like Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, etc. They're the last vestiges of the "If you're rich, you're Republican" club.
But I think the greatest factor in the changeover was twofold:
George McGovern's nomination to run for President for the Democrats in 1972. McGovern is almost certainly the most far-Left candidate to run for President from the two major partys (at least depending on who gets the Dem nod in 2008). His nomination marked the beginning of the Democrat Party's move further and further to the Left. The majority of the southern Democrats were and, to a lesser extent still are, Conservative. They saw the party leaving them ideologically, so they were left without a political home, at least on a national basis.
Until 1980 and Ronald Reagan. Reagan tapped into the dissatisfaction of the southern Democrats by positioning himself as strong on defense (and compared to Carter, damn near anyone except possibly Neville Chamberlain is strong on defense), advocating law and order and justice, tax cuts and a strong economy and, above all, a boundless optimism that American's best days were still to come. Given the disaster that was the Carter presidency, people were primed for change and Reagan not only promised positive change, he more than delivered.
Not to turn this into a hagiography of Reagan, but his role in the transformation cannot be ignored nor overstated.
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Post by killer on May 24, 2007 21:25:33 GMT -5
My daughter had this as an essay question on exam. So when she asked me what I thought, I didn't know how to respond. I've never studied the parties' geography, etc. I think question on exam asked for the shift after late 1800s.
Thanks for taking the time to offer info.
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Post by W.O.M.I on May 25, 2007 11:10:33 GMT -5
I'd think that the shift back then was probably a result of Lincoln's death and the failure of Andrew Johnson's Administration to follow through on Lincoln's plan for a lenient Reconstruction.
After Lincoln's assassination, Republicans in Congress turned vengeful in their attitude towards the South because many of them felt that Lincoln's assassination was the result of an officially-sanctioned Confederate plot. Obviously, it was a conspiracy...but it didn't (so far as history shows) hatch in Richmond.
Johnson was legislatively maneuvered into adopting a far harsher posture toward the South, essentially mounting a military occupation of most of the ex-Confederacy. Parts of the South were placed under virtual martial law for years. That bred resentment.
Adding to that was the 'disloyalty clase' of the Reconstruction plan, which forbade anyone who had any official dealings with the Confederacy from running for an holding political or appointed office. That excluded virtually ever male in the South from running to represent their own people....but it specifically excluded blacks from that provision. Southern whites soon found themselves represented by either blacks or Northerners and found both unacceptable. More resentment.
Being that Republicans ruled in Washington, Southernern whites embraced the opposition- Democrats (and related parties so long as they were anti-Republican). Southern blacks, because Republicans were the party of "Father Abraham" embraced Republicans.
Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was probably best summed up by his quote "Let 'em up easy." and by his famous "With malice towards none and charity for all..." speech. The chance for peaceful Reconstruction died at Ford's Theater that night.
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Post by bamagatr on Jun 3, 2007 12:50:37 GMT -5
No reversal when it comes to fiscal matters..."both" parties are totally carried away with bigger and bigger government...the sad part is that "we" are letting them...
Imagine a politician winning on a platform that says "tax cuts are bad...I promise to raise your taxes" and "i know better than yoou how to spend your money"....or, worse yet, "you don't have any money other than what we let you keep"
The Montgomery Advertiser had an editorial recently that "lectured" us on the fact that property taxes in Alabama are too low, and neither the legislature nor the governor should do anything to get away from annual appraisals...
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