Talk:Southern strategy

George Bush (41) did not use a "Willie Horton" commercial. The Bush campaign commercial was the "revolving door justice" commercial. If you want to find the origins of Willie Horton as a campaign issue, look no further than Al Gore, who used the prison furlough issue against Dukakis in the 1988 New York primary.

The entire leftist slant to the *myth* of the "Southern Strategy" does not stand up to the facts.

In 1968 a former Democrat, George Wallace, running as a third party candidate won all of the deep south states. Nixon came in *third* in some of those states.

That is hardly "appealing to (evil) white southern (racists)"!

In addition, the Democrats have run the following "southern white males" for President since WWII:

Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Gore

and Wallace, a Democrat, ran as a third party candidate in 1968.

The Republicans have run the following "southern white males":

Bush (43)

Someone who was called a "carpetbagger" because of his New England background.

There are undoubtedly a few throwbacks in politics (of all parties) who think appealing to race is somehow a winning tactic, but to claim the Republican Party does it as a matter of policy is just ludicrous.

Opposition to Federal policy by the Republican Party has always been due to the nature of unfunded mandates or bad policy decisions at the Federal level, not because of the stated goals of such programs. Good "intentions" do not guarantee good results.

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I agree, this article could certainly use some other contributors, esp. those who know about the topic. If you're new here, you might want to look at Wikipedia:Manual of Style, or not, but either way you're encouraged to be bold in your editing. Look forward to your edits, Meelar 00:01, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC) P.S. That said, I'm not saying I agree with your interpretation, but let's see if we can't work out something acceptable to us both.

Goldwater & states rights.

Meelar, K. Lee--there have to be period sources that can resolve the question of Goldwater's views and intentions. Probably many of the participants are still alive. Randwolf

Apparently, he cofounded the Arizona NAACP. I'm no expert, but that's at least some of what I'm basing this on. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 04:10, 2004 Sep 6 (UTC)

Yah. But he must have known that "states rights" would appeal in the South and why--he was no fool. It would be a really interesting topic for primary-source research. Or perhaps that has already been done. Randwolf

I agree. I'll try to take a look at a Goldwater biography in the next few days. Best wishes, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 05:09, 2004 Sep 7 (UTC)

Reagan Klan endorsements

Some specifics on this would be nice--just who endorsed him in 1980? Also, I've read about a 1984 endorsement which he accepted--anyone know about that?

Frank book

Dropped:

A 2004 book by Thomas Frank, entitled What's the Matter With Kansas?, revolves around the rise of cultural issues as a Republican strategy.

What does a book about Kansas have to do with the "Southern strategy"? Ellsworth 14:50, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The phrase refers primarily to the realignment of the South, but it can apply anywhere conservatives used cultural issues as wedges to win over white middle-class voters. I'll make that clearer in the article. Incidentially, I'd recommend the book. Quite interesting. Best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 23:03, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)

How about a good article about it while I wait for it to work its way up my reading list? Heh heh heh. Ellsworth 00:40, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)