The "Parties Switched" shite most of you were taught is bull shite

quote:

---

Democrats used to be the anti-federalism party. Just look at the electoral college maps and it's plain as day that the current Republican platform is the old Democrat platfor

---

quote:

---

The Southern Strategy does not exist as it did in the 1960's (overt racism). There is no doubt that it existed, in the Wikipedia article you linked, the Republican National Committee chairman (Ken Mehlman) formally apologized to the NAACP. However, the Republican party since Reagan has been a '3 legged stool' that focuses on:

social conservatism

fiscal restraint

muscular internationalism

The first one is what is driving the southern states to vote Republican. From Wikipedia/Pew Research Center: A key element in the change was the transformation of evangelical white Protestants in the south from a largely nonpolitical approach to a heavily Republican commitment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Southern_United_States#The_South_becomes_Republican:_1964-2016 https://www.people-press.org/2004/12/06/religion-and-the-presidential-vote/

---

quote:

---

Asking "did the Southern Strategy exist?" is a really poor way of starting a neutral (or, I'd argue, reasonable) political discussion on the topic of the "Southern Strategy." Firstly, this is a historical question, not a political one. They cannot be conflated. From the perspective of academic historians, it is indeed debatable whether there was a defined "Southern Strategy." Various historians have provided different accounts of Republican party electoral strategies, and one of those is the Southern Strategy. But also, there are indeed some historians who do not subscribe to this narrative and instead have different formulations of the period. So yes - from a historical perspective - the Southern Strategy may not have existed. However, saying that the Southern Strategy did not exist does not deny the indisputable historical fact is that the Republican party used racial backlash in the South as a political strategy. Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized for racially polarizing tactics, giving de facto confirmation. On this, there's no legitimate debate. Discussions around racial tactics in the era are often framed around this "Southern Strategy: fact or fiction" dichotomy, which unfortunately veils the underlying racism issue. Both Democrat and Republican election strategies at the time employed highly racist strategies, there's no getting around it.

---

quote:

---

As a reformer Cleveland had such prestige that the like-minded wing of the Republican Party, called "Mugwumps", largely bolted the GOP presidential ticket and swung to his support in the 1884 election

---

quote:

---

Thus the cry of American labor for a better share in the rewards of industry is stifled with false pretenses, enterprise is fettered and bound down to home markets; capital is discouraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be properly amended nor repealed.

---