Can you read three paragraphs?
To: koan who wrote (57684) 7/5/2009 3:39:52 PM
From: Wharf Rat Read Replies (1) of 57699
After the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 by the Johnson administration, many southerners began to question the Democratic Party and its objectives. Some felt it was out of line to pass such legislation and many traditional southern Democrats, strict to their belief of white supremacy, joined the Republicans. Prominent southern Democratic senators, such as Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and Trent Lott switched to the Republican Party as the Democrats strayed more and more away from their traditional conservatism.[21] United under Goldwater, the Republicans, at least nationally, stood more conservatively than did the Democrats. For this reason, they gradually began appealing to the southern voter. Republicans from 1964 on began speaking in a conservative voice. Since the Democrats became the champions of equal rights with the Civil Rights era legislation and LBJ’s Great Society, they could no longer play the conservative card, not even in the South. Southern Democratic congressmen were forced to vote with their party on these critical issues; therefore, their approval at home declined and Republicans were able to use this against them in elections years.[22] Though the Democrats continued to organize biracial coalitions, the white electorate of the south was slowly being appealed to by the Republicans. In 1980, the de-alignment of the southern Democrats took place with the presidency of Ronald Reagan.[23] According to the Black brothers:
Reagan attracted a majority of white conservatives into the Republican Party and persuaded many other conservatives to think of themselves as ‘independents’ rather than as Democrats. The Republican President had a different impact on southern white moderates. He eroded their traditional attachment to the Democratic Party and increased their Republican ties, thereby neutralizing a huge, longstanding Democratic advantage among this critically important segment of the southern electorate.[24]
This unification made the Republican Party more competitive with its Democratic opponents in the south and allowed for more Republicans to take office there. The shift of the electorate, according to the Black brothers, occurred exactly when it should have. “The south finally experienced a Republican president with whom they could proudly identify.”[25] Reagan effectively appealed the Republican Party to white southerners as the party best able to accomplish their political goals.[26]
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