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The Civil Rights Act is what drove racist dixiecrats into the Republican party which it cynically used to its advantage[1] to start winning elections and to eve

by js2 6y ago

The Civil Rights Act is what drove racist dixiecrats into the Republican party which it cynically used to its advantage[1] to start winning elections and to eventually destroy the New Deal coalition[2]. You cannot compare today's parties to the pre-Civil Rights Act ideology of the parties. Today's Republican party bears no relation to the party of Lincoln. As a microcosm of this, Strom Thurmond[3] was a Democratic politician until 2003 before switching to the Republican party. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_coalition#Decline_and_fall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_coalition#Decline_and... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

dragonwriter 6y ago
> The Civil Rights Act is what drove racist dixiecrats into the Republican party No, Johnson’s embrace of the Civil Rights Act led to them being disaffected, as they had by integrationist and civil rights moves by Democrats before (“Dixiecrat” specifically refers to a rebellion over Truman’s integration moves a couple decades before, which led to a temporary third party defection.) What led them into Republican arms was the Republicans subsequently leveraging that disaffection by adopting appeal to White racism as a campaign tactic in the Southern Strategy, as they had not in previous instances where the Democratic Party had alienated it's White racist faction. Yes, at the time of the Civil Right Act, the Republicans were still the more reliable backers of equality and the Democrats, while they had a pro-equality faction, still had a large and powerful overtly White racist faction. That changed after the Civil Rights Act, when the Democrats embraced equality and the Republicans took the political opportunity that opened by embracing the racists.
- js2 6y ago
  Agreed. I was typing late at night and over-simplified. The important point in the big picture is that capitalists and business interests got white labor to split between the parties, and so now neither party represents labor adequately. I'd argue that laborers no more belong in the Republican Party than non-white conservatives belong in the Democratic Party.

by js2 6y ago

dragonwriter 6y ago

> The Civil Rights Act is what drove racist dixiecrats into the Republican party No, Johnson’s embrace of the Civil Rights Act led to them being disaffected, as they had by integrationist and civil rights moves by Democrats before (“Dixiecrat” specifically refers to a rebellion over Truman’s integration moves a couple decades before, which led to a temporary third party defection.) What led them into Republican arms was the Republicans subsequently leveraging that disaffection by adopting appeal to White racism as a campaign tactic in the Southern Strategy, as they had not in previous instances where the Democratic Party had alienated it's White racist faction. Yes, at the time of the Civil Right Act, the Republicans were still the more reliable backers of equality and the Democrats, while they had a pro-equality faction, still had a large and powerful overtly White racist faction. That changed after the Civil Rights Act, when the Democrats embraced equality and the Republicans took the political opportunity that opened by embracing the racists.

js2 6y ago
Agreed. I was typing late at night and over-simplified. The important point in the big picture is that capitalists and business interests got white labor to split between the parties, and so now neither party represents labor adequately. I'd argue that laborers no more belong in the Republican Party than non-white conservatives belong in the Democratic Party.