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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DavesM who wrote (338149)	1/5/2003 6:27:10 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 769667

No, you're right it was 1968 not 1972. Those 10,000,000 votes were the ones the GOP went after. Candidate (party) Popular vote (5 Nov 1968) Electoral vote (16 Dec 1968) Richard M. Nixon (Republican) 31,785,480 301 Hubert H. Humphrey (Democratic) 31,275,166 191 George C. Wallace (American Independent) 9,906,473 46 other 244,756 0

To: DavesM who wrote (338149)	1/5/2003 6:30:17 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 769667

On GOP Southern strategy - history to correct us both: Southern preferences in 1964 84% of Southern delegates to the Republican Convention agreed with the view that: “the government in Washington should stay out of the question of integrating schools” 82%: the question of voting rights of Negroes should be left to state and local governments.” Black and Black, p. 130 Short-term, long-term effects Goldwater repackaged the Republican Party as fundamentally conservative and sympathetic to Southern claims 1964 was an enormous defeat for Republicans, but the new conservative party began to dominate the Electoral College after 1968 1968 Richard Nixon emerges as most electable conservative (challenged by Rockefeller and Reagan) Strom Thurmond - now Republican – backed Nixon and united the Southern delegation The Southern Strategy: Civil Rights The Republicans certainly did not embrace segregation in an effort to attract Southern voters, But they also did not embrace a federal role in integration Black and Black label the new position “something in between segregation and integration” The Southern Strategy: Related issues Defense Judicial restraint Decentralization of governmental power The White Revolt in the South A series of conservative candidates -- Republican and third party -- capitalized on Southern opposition to civil rights to attract Southern voters: Strom Thurmond Barry Goldwater George Wallace Strom Thurmond 1948 incorporation of civil rights plank in Democratic platform motivated Thurmond to run as third party candidate: a Dixiecrat “..the radical, the subversives, and the Reds” gained complete control of the Democratic Party “If Massachusetts and other northern states want to encourage [racial] intermingling, let them do it. But we will have none of it here.” Thurmond in 1948 Thurmond managed to secure 50% of the white vote in the Deep South (see map p. 148 - most successful among whites in states with large African-American population -- see p. 170) Interpretation of this outcome was uncertain at the time: feeble influence of race (only 50%) or indicator of potency of race as single issue Barry Goldwater Goldwater was one of a narrow minority that opposed the Civil Rights Act. His opposition was rooted in fear of the creation of a "police state" to enforce the provisions of the Act. (no "legislation of morality"; preemince of "states rights") The Goldwater campaign events in the south in 1964 were labeled as "carnivals of white supremacy" by some observers. Goldwater in 1964 Goldwater's support in the white south was very broad -- highly-educated and poorly-educated; urban and rural; upper class and lower class. But Johnson won 99% of the Electoral College votes in the North and a majority of the electoral College votes in the peripheral South George Wallace 1964: "Stand up for Alabama" opposition to integration of the University of Alabama creates a national stage for Wallace. Wallace's "llitle man against big government" message was very popular in the South (see p 163 & 160). This language has been appropriated by contemporary candidate of both political parties. George Wallace in 1968 As a third party candidate, Wallace received 13% of the national popular vote in 1968 (34% of South, 8% of North). Wallace had a more narrow appeal, specifically among poorly-educated less affluent Southern whites. Race and elections Wallace staked his candidacy on the issue of race and he was not as successful in creating a broad base of support as Goldwater Race alone was insufficient to attract Southern voters Note: 1968 Southern electorate contained many more African American registered voters Sociology of intolerance Proximity matters (see p. 147) Racial threat hypothesis: white minorities will actively oppose steps toward racial equality (see Figure 6.4) The New Southern Campaign The White Protest was confined, for the most part, to the Deep South. Peripheral southern states like Texas, North Carolina and Virginia were not sources of support for these candidates. Issues to unite the South Republican attention in future elections would focus on the best issues that could unite the South Attract the Deep South (thoroughly alienated from the Democrats) And the more suburban and affluent peripheral South.