Posted by
OakJoe on Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:41:43 AM
What does “The Southern Strategy” mean?
This question formulated as I took issue with Bonnie Erbe of Scripps Howard News Service column posted yesterday in my local newspaper. The title of her column “What does Obama’s win mean” reminded me of a column I read last year by Francis Rice entitled, “Why Martin Luther King was a Republican”. My contention is beyond Obama’s win and lies directly with Erbe’s interpretation of The Strategy and what it was to accomplish.
Erbe stated in her column that President-elect Barack Obama’s win signifies the death of the Old South and President Nixon’s infamous “Southern Strategy”. She says the GOP has used The Strategy successfully for almost 40 years to affect and win presidential elections. Does Erbe give an accurate representation of The Strategy?
Rice stated in her column that The Strategy was an effort on the part of President Nixon, to get Christians in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were still discriminating against their fellow Christians who happened to be black.
In contrast to Rice’s interpretation of The Strategy, Erbe interpretation appears misrepresented and takes on a racist tone. Erbe went on to state that when President Johnson ‘championed’ the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans saw a potential gold vein (presumably racism) in the South. According to Erbe, the party restructured itself and became a safe haven for white voters uneasy with Democrats or who were downright hostile to them for advancing the cause of black people.
If Erbe’s interpretation of The Strategy is accurate, it is distorted. Rice reminds us that President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. He also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the Warren court in 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education decision ended school segregation. Erbe’s representation of the Strategy flies in the face of reason and that there would be such a dramatic reversal in principle after these monumental events.
President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, in 1957 he voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator, as did Senator Al Gore Sr. Erbe conveniently omitted this in her article. Rice also pointed out that Johnson, in his 4,500 word State of the Union Address delivered on Jan. 4, 1965, mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only devoted 35 words to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights.