The political story of the South in the 20th century is one of disillusion and anger and transformation. Since the Civil War, the South had voted solidly Democratic out of an absolute revulsion to the Republican party. Regardless of the circumstances, so long as the person running for president was not a Southerner, that was generally enough. The South also had it's own faction in the big tent of the Democrats: Conservative Democrats, usually Racists and undoubtedly Segregationists willing to play race politics, increasingly at odds with the Democratic party beyond the South.
This faction became increasingly in conflict with the Democratic party as the 20th century progressed and as Civil Rights became an issue. There was the faithless elector bandwagon in 1960, and the Deep South universally voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964. 1968 is the strongest changing point, and the South had two candidates that played to it specifically: segregationist George Wallace of Alabama, and former vice president Richard Nixon, who coated his message to not alienate the rest of the nation but put forth one which captured the support of the region by playing into conservative Southern white bigotries and fears with a wink and nod to white racism. That was the Southern Strategy, and what that did was win the South, bring Conservatives and the Dixiecrats into the Republican party and make the Solid South Republican, slowly but surely kick out the moderates and liberals of the Rockefeller establishment, and do this at the expense of Black Americans who still voted for the Republicans as the party of Lincoln. Those remaining blacks went to the Democrats, along with various other alienated ethnic groups. It should be noted the change of the South to the GOP didn't happen overnight as, though the South increasingly became Solid for the GOP in Presidential politics, the Democrats were still strong on the local level for decades.
Something that has interested me is what would or could have occurred in the South had everything happened as it did, with the Dixiecrats being as alienated from the Democratic party over Civil Rights and the transformations of the 60s as they were, but with the Republican party never going with the Southern Strategy and playing into Southern bigotries. It doesn't seem like the South in such a situation could remain with the Democratic party, though there is always the possibility that the New South trend of leaving behind all those Old South things could properly bloom. At the same time, the transformation to a Republican South also has to do with the increasing White collar status of the South, so perhaps even then it would go solidly to the GOP, just with different ideas and for different reason (economics rather than social issues).
And if not invited into the Republican party, then the South would be a political orphan which could work towards a third party or the American Independent party, or could potentially force one of the major parties to change from the ground up rather than the OTL situation where they were invited in by Nixon and hence it was ground up by via the management of the top down.
I'm curious as to your opinions on this.
This faction became increasingly in conflict with the Democratic party as the 20th century progressed and as Civil Rights became an issue. There was the faithless elector bandwagon in 1960, and the Deep South universally voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964. 1968 is the strongest changing point, and the South had two candidates that played to it specifically: segregationist George Wallace of Alabama, and former vice president Richard Nixon, who coated his message to not alienate the rest of the nation but put forth one which captured the support of the region by playing into conservative Southern white bigotries and fears with a wink and nod to white racism. That was the Southern Strategy, and what that did was win the South, bring Conservatives and the Dixiecrats into the Republican party and make the Solid South Republican, slowly but surely kick out the moderates and liberals of the Rockefeller establishment, and do this at the expense of Black Americans who still voted for the Republicans as the party of Lincoln. Those remaining blacks went to the Democrats, along with various other alienated ethnic groups. It should be noted the change of the South to the GOP didn't happen overnight as, though the South increasingly became Solid for the GOP in Presidential politics, the Democrats were still strong on the local level for decades.
Something that has interested me is what would or could have occurred in the South had everything happened as it did, with the Dixiecrats being as alienated from the Democratic party over Civil Rights and the transformations of the 60s as they were, but with the Republican party never going with the Southern Strategy and playing into Southern bigotries. It doesn't seem like the South in such a situation could remain with the Democratic party, though there is always the possibility that the New South trend of leaving behind all those Old South things could properly bloom. At the same time, the transformation to a Republican South also has to do with the increasing White collar status of the South, so perhaps even then it would go solidly to the GOP, just with different ideas and for different reason (economics rather than social issues).
And if not invited into the Republican party, then the South would be a political orphan which could work towards a third party or the American Independent party, or could potentially force one of the major parties to change from the ground up rather than the OTL situation where they were invited in by Nixon and hence it was ground up by via the management of the top down.
I'm curious as to your opinions on this.