Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
One thing that did happen to the republicans is that Reagan heavily courted the religious right. After his election it became clear to many republicans that the way to win elections was to make them happy. Karl Rove is famous for saying that the key for a republican win was to heavily court the evangelicals, move just enough to the middle to pull in the right leaning independents then hope it rains on election day. The far right is organized and they vote so a low voter turnout benefits the republicans (hence many of the current voter suppression laws that they are trying to put into place). The problem with this is that the evangelicals the took control of the party so candidates were forced to bow to them or never win.
|
The
real change started in 1964 with Goldwater's
Southern Strategy and intensified in 1968 with Nixon's version of the same. Prior to 1964, Republicans as a group and both Goldwater and (to a lesser degree) Nixon as individuals supported Civil Rights legislation.
By the time Reagan came around this metamorphosis was already a done deed. It is true however that Reagan succeeded in further strengthening the Republicans in the South by luring the region's religious yahoos their way as well.