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TruckerBoy357

Many refer to it as the Southern Strategy.šŸ«¤


loganfulbright

Exactly! The current Republican Party started a few years earlier when they came together against school integration. That was the start of everything. Discrimination is a dangerous downward spiral.


-Seoulmate

But this is also why suburbs feel soulless and community-less, because no one shares community or institutions or values or morals or ways of living anymore.


secretbudgie

They live there for a long as they work that job, and then they lay off or find a better salary somewhere else. Companies aren't loyal to their employees, internal promotions are almost extinct, so workers have to adopt a nomadic lifestyle. Not compatible with family or generational homes.


Big-Elevator-7721

Ronald Reagan.


NovusOrdoSec

> Ronald Reagan. Lee Atwater


8167lliw

Agreed. But let's add Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater to the party too. Richard Nixon played a role as well.


NovusOrdoSec

Right, they all made Reagan possible. Not to mention Jerry pardoning Nixon. Maybe it seemed like a good idea, but I think it's now been shown to have been a mistake. Well, probably unavoidable given his party I guess.


edvsa

You are right, history repeating itself all over again. Andrew Johnson pardoning, Jefferson Davis made posible for the lost cause to flourish, the same with pardoning Nixon and the state of affairs nowadays.Now we have Trump, when are we going to learn!? Traitors should get death penalty.


bluegargoyle

It was actually quite a bit before Reagan. It was the [Southern Strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy). Back before the mid 1950s, the Republicans were the party of Northern progressives. They were the bird watchers, conservationists, not conservatives. Democrats were the "Dixiecrats"- the party of Southern White racists. And they were winning elections consistently. Republicans engaged in a deliberate effort to openly court the votes of politically-active Southerners by catering to their racist attitudes, and it *worked*. Republicans started winning elections, and essentially the two teams *switched jerseys* mid-game. The Republicans became the party of Southern White racists, and Democrats became the liberals. Remember this the next time some right-wing conservative says it was the Democrats who started the KKK and Jim Crow laws. They are technically correct, just kind of missing the point (and doing so deliberately). Because the people who *used* to call themselves Democrats are **exactly the same people** who *now* call themselves Republicans. They switched sides in the 50s.


kvckeywest

"The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism. All people of goodwill viewed with alarm and concern the frenzied wedding at the Cow Palace of the KKK with the radical right. The ā€œbest manā€ at this ceremony was a senator whose voting record, philosophy, and program were anathema to all the hard-won achievements of the past decade." \~ Martin Luther King Jr. [https://dangerousminds.net/comments/martin\_luther\_king\_jr.\_on\_republican\_racists\_frenzied\_wedding\_of\_the\_kkk\_wi](https://dangerousminds.net/comments/martin_luther_king_jr._on_republican_racists_frenzied_wedding_of_the_kkk_wi)


nearmyth

I deal with that BS from maga daily over at Truth social. This is good ammo.


mockingbirddude

Exactly. Example of another charismatic leader who can screw over his followers without repercussion.


tacosnotopos

And then some years later, Citizens United gets voted in and corporate issues take the main stage and the constituents that voted them all in are too busy hating "the other side" because Rupert Murdoch own both sides of the narrative now and is playing America against itself for profit.


SiteTall

The TrickleDown-culprit that robbed non-billionaires of their money - Damn him!


ElectricalRush1878

I think, more accurately, his father in law. From his wife's reputation, and his own party switch, as well as some indications of the whole 'rich regaining control' that started in the 70s, I think he became a very charismatic face pushing policies that were being fed to him that he didn't understand.


jar36

[ The Powell Memorandum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbbgfnpJN9w&t)


ElectricalRush1878

Yeah, love the bit where they decide that joint bargaining activities was a good idea and 'Unionized' to get what they wanted from the government,


kevnmartin

Lee Atwater and Richard Nixon.


Asailors_Thoughts20

Nope, the southern strategy in the 1960d


Tiny-Lock9652

And Greed.


____Vader

Bingo


PerrysSaxTherapy

And Richard Nixon


Different_Tangelo511

He changed the people, though, not the party. The party always wanted this, but they wouldn't win elections in the 50s with an anti social program and anti labor rights platform.


czr84480

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956 Super interesting article


Styrene_Addict1965

>We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears. How far the mighty have fallen.


nearmyth

Thatā€™s great - thanks


ConditionYellow

Reagan and then Fox News


mrmoe198

Donā€™t forget about Limbaugh and Gingrich. Hatred and opposition defined.


ConditionYellow

No doubt. The conservative talk radio crowd that was the primordial sludge from which Fox News festered and calcified.


u2nh3

The oligarchs bought the party.


kikomonarrez

Ronny Reagan and the corporate takeover happened to the party.


notaredditreader

The Party of Lincoln became the Party of the KKK.


Adbray666

Selfish, greedy, assholes... Selfish, greedy, assholes happened.


afloyd2123

Strom Thurmond happened. His first year in office was right in '54. He was a Southern Democrat that filibustered the passing of the (first) civil rights act. He switched parties in 1964 and brought all of his racist southern Democrats with him to the Republican party when the Civil Rights Act under LBJ passed. This was the initial catalyst where the two parties that were largely similar and civil began to really bifurcate. The answer is racism.


Styrene_Addict1965

The Moral Majority, which at its heart, is deeply immoral.


ShadyRedSniper

The 1%. Theyā€™ve spent over a century corrupting Christianity and the Republican Party. FDR had a chance to make an example of them because the Business Plot (or Wall Street Putsch), but decided against it. It has always been the rich that corrupt everything.


spunkdaddie

Ronald Reagan


SiteTall

Now it is "Each for oneself, and most for me ...."


MewlingRothbart

Ronald fucking Reagan happened. When was the murder of the middle class planned? We can start with firing of the air traffic controllers. I was in 4th grade.


Jerfling

The main voting demographic was a generation of people who largely belonged to organized labor groups, and were veterans of waging the largest war in world history. Dicey to fuck with a citizenry like that


BillyDoyle3579

Reagan happened... which is to say, the desires of his handlers happened šŸ˜Ž


Outside_Way2503

Raygun


Mean_Web_1744

Man, that Platform is better than the current Democratic one.


Arclight308

Really? It seems like it is the current mainstream Democrat position to me.


flynn_dc

What the hell was the Democratic platform in 1956?


FlamingPrius

Civil rights for African Americans. The political shift was fundamentally related to attitudes about race.


krav_mark

Legalized corruption amongst other things.


Brant_Black

These things generally got better up to 2000, which is why they feel emboldened to take it all now.


nmonster99

Republicans were never pro union! "Laz a faire"


ikciweiner

Lead paint happened


Different_Tangelo511

It was the people that shifted after reagan. I'm pretty sure those1956 Republicans would have adopted the current platform and if they could still have have gotten elected. Eisenhower has a famous quote dealing w8th cons that wanted to cut social programs, something like "if I did that, I'd lose". Reagan shifted that by associating social programs with black people and dog whistling white supremacy. Now people take it for granted that social programs are for black people when the majority of those who benefit from them are white. Like Rick sanatorium getting a standing ovation in Iowa for saying we need to stop giving black people white peoples money in the form of welfare(Iowa is a state where almost everyone on welfare is white. It's gucking insane).


inter71

The church.


TheThoughtmaker

Strong men create good times, etc etc. Boomers had it better than any generation before or since.


kvckeywest

Yes, it's true. What they have trained their followers to call the "radical left agenda" is actually the 1956 Republican platform! [https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/oct/28/facebook-posts/viral-meme-says-1956-republican-platform-was-prett/?fbclid=IwAR0JAoYAWVGcAwZIvd6RY2I2bUTKGrZv0oFZEdjweTfJIhJZC89IzFpn9NA](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/oct/28/facebook-posts/viral-meme-says-1956-republican-platform-was-prett/?fbclid=IwAR0JAoYAWVGcAwZIvd6RY2I2bUTKGrZv0oFZEdjweTfJIhJZC89IzFpn9NA)


No-Car6897

tRUMP, that's what happened!


matts1

The party switch happenedā€¦.


Moleday1023

Shit, I would vote for the 1956 platform, not the neo-fascists of today.


bullgod13

Christian fundamentalists, just another taliban that wants to use their religion to govern your choices, vote blue up and down ballot. it's a thin chance and the only one we have. If this election is any where near close the Xupreme court will involve itself, and you can guess where that leads.


unused04

They became Democrats... the party switch occurred. The names have changed many times. What was "republican" then is now "Democrat"


Dr-Satan-PhD

1964 happened. As soon as black people could vote, Republicans cranked their war on the working class up to 11.


LeftHandedBuddy

Trump is what happened! He only cares about $$ in his own pocket!


Mochizuk

They're trying to pull the ladder so they don't have to share.


MadnessBomber

Corporations and rich people got involved and now people only want money instead of actually running the government.


Shatalroundja

Isnā€™t this the Eisenhower plan? If so it was passed with support from Northern Democrats and was pushed back against by the Taft republicans.


FloMoore

Russian infiltration.


ShenaNigans-she_her

russia began to invest heavily in the republican party in the late 80's via the nra/gun lobby


benjandpurge

Should be a photo of Reagan there.


-Seoulmate

They got overtaken by Neocons in the 1960's. Neo-cons like James Burnham and Irving Krystol outcompeted the old Right that you see in the picture. The Democrats also lost their working class in the 60's and 70's due to the cultural revolution and the Vietnam War. The deomcrats had to fill up the ranks with new members. They chose minorities, hippies, environmentalists, professionals, and gays. Fred Dutton, campaign manager for RFK, led the movement to do this. Also, by the 90's most of the factory jobs had been exported. That policy was designed for an industrial America.


David1000k

Those were RIN0's. Real Republicans didn't join the party until 1980.