A Relook at Voting History

For John, BLUF:  An interesting dive into history that looks at a big political myth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Goldwater landslide myth

Here is the sub-headline:

Alabama political columnist needs a history lesson

From Don Surber Substack, by Reporter Don Surber, 15 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus ten:

It’s that time in the presidential election year when lazy journalists roll out their frightening fairy story about Nixon’s southern strategy. The fable is meant to portray Republicans as racists. It is of course a lie but it goes like this, as reported by Steve Flowers whose weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature.

He wrote:

Lyndon Johnson was the Democrat nominee for president. Johnson carried 44 states and won the presidency by a landslide. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona carried only his home state and the five deep south states, including Alabama. Goldwater carried Alabama overwhelmingly, thus the label given to the Republican victory in the south was ironically the Goldwater Landslide.

The so-called “Solid South” had been Democratic more out of tradition and protocol than philosophy. Both national parties took the south for granted in national elections. The Democrats ignored us because we were in the barn and the Republicans ignored us for the same reason.

The 1964 election was the turning point when the deep south states voted for Barry Goldwater. The south has never looked back. It was the race issue that won them over. Goldwater and the Republican party captured the race issue.

Let us look at the facts.

Goldwater was one of only 6 Republican senators who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The other 27 voted for the act — clearly a higher percentage of the support than the Democrats who split 44-23 on passage of the law. The two-thirds majority was necessary to overcome a Democrat filibuster.

Goldwater indeed carried 5 of the 11 Confederate states with his stand against civil rights. Four years later, Nixon too carried 5 of the 11 Confederate states.

None of them, however, were the 5 states Goldwater carried. Those five states all went to a Democrat which shows that if Nixon had a Southern strategy of wrangling klansmen into the Republican Party, he failed miserably.

For example, Goldwater received 87% of the vote in Mississippi in 1964. Four years later, Nixon received less than 14% of the vote in that state.

Of course, Nixon had no such designs on the South. He was an ardent supporter of civil rights as vice president and therefore, President of the Senate.

This is different from how the "Nixon Southern Strategy" is normally portrayed.

It should be pointed out that the Candidacy of Alabama Governor George Wallace iin 1968 impacted who got which Elecoral College votes.

This year we are seeing such blocks breaking up as votes look to issues rather than to racial groups.

Regards  —  Cliff