Southern Regional Party U.S.

What was the feasibility of a southern regional party forming in the United States, especially if southern conservatives can't find a home in the Republican Party. This would mean that Goldwater failed to secure the Republican nomination in 1964.
 
Well, to really secure this, you'd have to go all the way before 1900, to just after the Civil War. The KKK was briefly considering becoming a party before they began endorsing the Democrats. And as you should know, by 1877, every Senator from the Southern states was a conservative Democrat.
 
Because of the reality of the US electoral process, Southerners would simply not be looking out for their own interests effectively if they formed their own party, rather than joining either the Democrats or the Republicans. Until the 1960's the Democratic Party largely did the bidding of Southern Democrats when it came to appropriations and civil rights legislation. Even today southern Senators often benefit from seniority within their party, which allows them to control key appropriations committees.

A national dixicrat party simply could not deliver as much for the south. They would have, in the best case scenario, something like 18 Senators, and 50 Congressmen. An impressive bloc, but one unable to pass its own legislation, except by logrolling with one of the major parties.
 
Well, it could happen, but it would only be for a couple election cycles, due to the winner-take-all system of elections that the US uses for presidential and congressional elections.

If a southern regional party were to be established, its ideas would probably be co-opted by one of the two major parties, either on a national scale, or at least for that region. That's been the pattern when it comes to third parties so far, I don't see why that would change in this situation.
 
A southern regional party might be able to form, but they'd have to back either the Democratic or Republican candidate in the Presidential elections in order to avoid gifting the presidency to the the North in perpetuity. They'd be their own faction in the congress, and would have significant influence, being able to tip the balance of power one way or the other and demand special concessions. Whether it would have been a more or less successful strategy for southern(white elite) interests or not is an open question.
 
A southern regional party might be able to form, but they'd have to back either the Democratic or Republican candidate in the Presidential elections in order to avoid gifting the presidency to the the North in perpetuity. They'd be their own faction in the congress, and would have significant influence, being able to tip the balance of power one way or the other and demand special concessions. Whether it would have been a more or less successful strategy for southern(white elite) interests or not is an open question.

The southern Democrats operated pretty much in this manner from the 1870s through the 1960s - they just didn't officially have their own party (except for the short-lived "Dixiecrats" in 1948). There just was no incentive to form their own party when they could consistently get concessions from one party.

To make this work you would need to have the northern Democrats refuse to support the Southern Democrats on more key issues, in which case southern politicians would have a motive to form their own regional party and try to play the two national parties off against each other.
 
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