Well, there wasn't a "switch" and certainly not a "switch" based on racism. What you are saying doesn't make any sense.

Blacks had started moving to the Democrat Party, noticeably, in the 1930s and 1940s - BEFORE the Dixiecrat campaign of 1948. So, I must assume blacks were not changing to Democrat during this period because they were racist.

Now, let's look at the "racist Southern whites" who switched to the Republican Party because - "racism", I guess:

1960 - Alabama and Mississippi did vote for Harry Byrd (admittedly, a guy not very fond of desegregation). Virginia, Tennessee and Florida went Nixon. The rest of the "racist" South voted for virulent racist, Jack fricking Kennedy.

1964 - LBJ carried 6 states of the old confederacy, Arizona Senator of Jewish ancestry carried the other 5. I know you guys want Barry Goldwater to be a racist, but it just wasn't so - he was a rare Republican who opposed the 1964 CRA, but did so on principled, Constitutional grounds not because he was in favor of Jim Crow or Slavery.

1968 - "Racist" Nixon was unable to carry the increasingly "racist, Republican" South, because they voted for Dixiecrat 2.0 candidate, George Wallace.

1972 - "Racist" Nixon was able to get those Wallace racist Dems to vote for him - AND EVERY OTHER STATE EXCEPT MASSACHUSSETTS (and D.C.)

1976 - Those fickle-arse racists who voted for Republican Nixon in 1972 - ALL VOTED FOR JIMMUH in 1976, except Virginia.

1980/1984, Reagan, much like Nixon in 1972, won everywhere.

1988 - I suppose this is when you cats think the "switch" was final, as HW comfortably won the Confederacy.

1992 - Again, their racism must be fickle AF as 4 of the 11 now (presumably) Republican, heavily racist Southern states voted for the first Black President, Democrat William Jefferson Clinton.

What you're missing is - the South became MORE Republican over things like gun control, taxes, general conservative values that became more a part of the Republican platform and less a part of the Democrat platform over these 2 generations of voting.

And they became MORE Republican as they became LESS racist. Period.

This post was edited on 7/10/20 at 6:28 am