The GOP’s Southern Strategy and Ronald Reag

Several Op-Ed pieces have appeared in the media this past month regarding the so-called “Southern Strategy” of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan’s role in its success. The debate of late focuses on whether the strategy is racist and was Reagan a racist.

There is no question that following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the GOP gained more and more political power in the southern states, until achieving a Republican “Solid South” resembling the old Democratic “Solid South”. Demographers, geographers, economists, historians, political scientists, journalists and pundits have offered a myriad of reasons for the change. One of my favorite Republicans, Kevin Phillips, wrote an excellent and prescient analysis of this trend in the late ‘60s: The Emerging Republican Majority. As good as this book is as a geography of political change, it, as well as most of the other analyses, misses the main point.

That point is racism. The Democratic Party in the South had its share of committed racists prior to 1964 (I am sure that many remain). Indeed, many of these racists stayed with the party until the 1980s, most likely due to local traditions. It was Reagan, however, in 1980 who won the racist votes for the GOP with his campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the urging of Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), then a member of the House, Reagan announced his candidacy for the presidency in Philadelphia and also stated his emphatic support for states rights. By so doing, Reagan sent a blatant message of support for racism, and he quickly was endorsed by the KKK (they were in attendance at the speech). For a more complete and erudite history of this event, please see http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Reagan%20A%20Legacy%20of%20States'%20Rights.htm, as well as recent nationally syndicated columns by Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and David Brooks.

The Reagan years, viewed with nostalgic awe by the GOP, was laced with race-baiting tactics and legislation, exemplified by Lott’s and Reagan’s attempt to grant tax-exempt status to the racist Bob Jones University (their efforts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision). Note that Lott lost his Senate Majority leadership post by stating that the USA would b e better off if the avowed racist Strom Thurmond has been elected president. Just about every Republican in a leadership position in Texas, for instance, switched parties following Reagan’s endorsement of “states rights.”

Racism remains the most destructive domestic problem in the USA. We will not become a true “nation” until this is remedied.

Sherman, let's enter the Wayback Machine and return to the last century...

Arrived in Boston in the wee hours of Sunday and headed to Cape Cod to sister Cape Cod Janie's house. My godmother (mom's older sister, Claire) is recovering from a fall and I surprised her in RI with a visit this afternoon. She is a WW II vet and was stationed in DC as a WAC where she met her future husband Tony. As a marine with the First Marine Division, Uncle Tony was in the attack on Guadalcanal in 1942. On this Veterans Day 2007, I honor all veterans of all wars for their sacrifices, including Aunt Claire, Uncle Tony, Uncle Bob, Uncle Harry, Uncle Rich, Dr. Rearick, Kim's dad, Betsey's dad, George, Bob Frisk, Norm Aubin, Donnie Marquis, Paul Durand, John, John, Joe, Cousin Jack (Jean-Louis), Max Clelland, Daniel Inouye, George McGovern, Kurt Vonnegut, Hank Bauer, Ralph Houk, Pat Tillman, Ted Williams, Phil Rizzuto, and so on. But most especially, my father MCPO Aldor D. L'Heureux, USNR(ret), who served from 1944 until 1987.

Thanks to all of you for your efforts, especially in those wars where the motives were/are despicable and the leaders morally and ethically bankrupt. Because his service was so honorable, I also thank George H. W. Bush. On the other hand, I cannot thank nor will I mention by name, those who dishonored these fine people with phony service appointments far from harms way doing political work.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! (sorry Francophiles for any Joual-type grammar errors).

My Godfather's Folks were from Napoli!!!

Remember Blazing Saddles? "We'll take the n...s and the c...s, but no Irish." They let my greatgreatgrandpappy Sweeney from Cork in anyway. I was never any good with riddles, so I won't attempt snappy repartees to comments when my counter comment may prove beyond all shadow of a doubt my blockheadedness. If you were from La Ville du Nord you would understand my lack of mental faculties beyond rote memorization of my Baltimore catechism. "Who made us? Dog made us. Why did Dog make us? Dog needed a best friend." I am also lesdyxic when I get tired.

I wonder if my Sweeney forbear was an illegal? So many of the Irish came to these shores for work and just stayed on. I know for a fact that until very recently Boston, Toledo, Detroit and Chicago still had their share. Probably still do. It’s so easy to pass when you just stay in the neighborhood where everyone speaks in the same dialect as you. I know that Polish Grampa Joe had his papers for steerage on that ship from Bremen and I am sure that Canadian French Great Grandpa Joe and Great Grandma Rose-Delima just hopped a train from Quebec.

So, with the Democratic-controlled House passing a free trade bill with Peru today, I guess that opens up more grape and lettuce picking jobs for all those folks who will get “laid-off” from their middling paying primary and secondary economic sector jobs. Remember, W has really grown the economy by providing millions of minimum wage and below jobs (many industries do NOT have to abide by minimum wage laws) for all those folks who are getting foreclosed on as their jobs evaporate into increased profits for the Upper 1%. But wait, there’s more! We get plenty of grapes from South America, so maybe those lettuce pickers will be kings until we can get well-preserved (anti-freeze?) lettuce from the Far East. Hey, I saw organic garlic at a well-heeled supermarket in Seattle a few months ago so I guess that the lettuce can’t be far behind. I saw a Tommy Bahama shirt for $185 at a Nordstrom store near Portland OR – made in China, of course. Got to be an obscene profit in there somewhere for someone! Now, I must state for the record that I own several Tommy Bahama shirts but there is limit even to my conspicuous consumpting ways.