what happened in the deep south?

i was looking at a history alminac, and i saw that historically the south has voted for the democrats almost every time up to 1988 then afterwards they were almost hated and villianized with out a chance of getting a state down there.

the question that begs to be asked is what happened, and how could this be changed?
 

burmafrd

Banned
The South has been conservative and still is. The Democratic party kept going farther to the left and that is why the South went Republican. Just like the more liberal Northeast used to be more republican and is now fully Democrat. THIS election you had the Obama effect which was pronounced and a very much unpopular president. BUT even with that the South still mostly stayed Republican. The elections of 2000 and 2004 showed that the Republicans strength was in the south and west of the Mississippi with the exception of the West Coast. While the Democrat strength was the West Coast and the NorthEast, and most of the Upper Midwest.
 
The South has been conservative and still is. The Democratic party kept going farther to the left and that is why the South went Republican. Just like the more liberal Northeast used to be more republican and is now fully Democrat. THIS election you had the Obama effect which was pronounced and a very much unpopular president. BUT even with that the South still mostly stayed Republican. The elections of 2000 and 2004 showed that the Republicans strength was in the south and west of the Mississippi with the exception of the West Coast. While the Democrat strength was the West Coast and the NorthEast, and most of the Upper Midwest.
Right. But the thing to remember is that the Republicans were Abraham Lincoln's party. You had to wait until long enough after the Civil War (WNA, whatever) for any Southerner to be willing to vote for any party with the name 'Republican'. I could see, if the Democrats moved left earlier, the 'Dixiecrat' wing breaking off and being de facto the southern wing of the republicans (like in Germany where the Bavarian party has a different name OTL, but essentially functions as a part of the same party).
 
Most of the states in the deep south, from post civil war until approximately the early 1960s had majority black populations. Once reconstruction ended, in order to maintain/get back political power, the whites enacted various measures to keep most blacks from voting, and thus voting the whites out of office. For generations the deep south voted democratic, not so much that it was the party that represented most of their political beliefs, but because it was the party that enabled the whites to maintain political power and control.

Then from around the turn of the century and continuing until around the early 60s, the great black migration from the south to the north and west took place. As a result, the demographics of the states of the deep south changed as the white population became the majority. That significant fact, coupled with the enactment of civil rights legislation guaranteeing the rights of blacks to vote, caused a gradual shift in a large proportion of the white electorate to the Republican party. Conservative social issues that had been complete non-issues until the 1970s and 1980s (most notably the abortion issue) were taken up by the Republican party as a means for swaying former democratic voters in the deep south to change parties.

However, in order to hold onto the gains that the Republican party made with a majority of whites in the deep south, it also took positions counter to its original role as the party of emanicipation, one example being by vigorously fighting against affirmative action. As a result, blacks deserted the Republican party. Nevertheless, the Republican party became the dominant party in the South.
 
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