Why Southerners — crackers — didn't and won't vote for Obama.
I was born in Alabama, grew up in Mississippi, and went to college in Tennessee. And I have a Ph.D. in Russian from Columbia University. So I have a double perception of the South and things Southern. I know the South from the inside, and I’ve chosen not to live there since I graduated from college.…
Article comments
26 - zingzing
the southern democrats were somewhat different. hence the exodus. lbj, in signing the civil rights act, knew that he was destroying the democratic party in the south, but he also figured it was the right thing to do. he said something like "we have lost the south for a generation" as he signed it.
of course it's not quite as simple as that... it's not completely a black and white issue. ha. sorry. oi. forgive me. dave's right in that there many reasons why white southerners left the democratic party for the republicans. but the most powerful of these reasons is race.
27 - roger nowosielski
I get it. But what of the Southern Democrats? Did they change party affiliation or are they still Democrats but in name only?
28 - zingzing
well, the bigoted ones either went to the republicans or were voted out... or stayed on and hid their true feelings. either way, the democratic party changed plenty from the late-40s through the late-60s, especially in the south.
jim crow/white supremacy was a pillar of the social order of the south, especially during the first half of the 20th century. when civil rights and black voters started to move that pillar, then let it topple, the political landscape of the south was turned on its head.
comparing the political parties of today with those in 1950 is an exercise in the absurd qualities of our national history.
now as to your comment #25, which i didn't see earlier... as i understand it, your points 1 and 2 are true, #3 is also true (but with the caveat that democrats, regardless of their race, came out in force for that election), but #4 is not quite true.
the south has changed plenty in the 40+ years since the civil rights act. racism, while it obviously still exists, is nowhere near what it used to be. it's no longer obviously and legally institutionalized.
i've been reading a book recently, called "blood done sign my name" by a white man who grew up in oxford and wilmington, nc. the schools in oxford were finally integrated in 1970 or so. up until that point, shops, parks, theaters, even court rooms were segregated. in the spring of 1970, a white man murdered a black man for saying something to a white woman. the murderer got off and the town exploded with race riots, arson, etc. violence ruled all summer, but eventually, blacks boycotted white businesses in order to economically wear them down.
i was born less than a decade later in a city in nc with a large black population, and i never noticed any such racial violence. apparently, there was a trial early during my life that brought up the racism of the justice system in my city (look up darryl hunt), but i was too young (or white) to take any notice. still, even during that decade, much changed in the south.
southern democrats, these days, are pretty much like any other democrat. they're just rarer in the south than the north. but even that is changing. i guess what i'm saying is that i'm a southern democrat, but i don't think i have much in common with the democratic party that counted jesse helms amongst their number (before he jumped ship), and a vast, vast majority of southern democrats probably feel the same way.
29 - leighann
So why do they have to be "religous bigots," why not just "bigots?" Are all religous bigots or all bigots religious? Maybe some bigots claim to be religous. Maybe some bigots do not claim to be religous. Maybe, just maybe there are some religous Southern folk out there who are not bigots. There may be many of them. What a concept!
I am southern. That means that I live in one of the southern states of the United States Of America. I thought I would clarify that since some seem to think that we do not know there are other countries south of us. I now live in TN but lived in Mobile AL for the first 14 years of my life. I do feel that my roots are here and would never want to live any place else.
Cracker? Seriously? That is a racial slur. I went to a school where I was one of only about 10 to 20 white kids there. I was the only white girl in some of my classes and have heard this slur directed at me many times as well as honkey, peckerwood and a few others. This was done by a few, not all.
I did not vote for Obama but it was not because of his race and it was not becuase he moved around. It is because I do not agree with him on most issues. It is for some of the same reasons that I did not vote for John Kerry. If you remember the map from that election, John Kerry was unable to carry the southern states also. In fact, Al Gore did not even carry TN and he was from here. It had nothing to do with race then, so why does it have to now?
I prefer not to call myself religous, but I am a Christian. Since I did not vote for Obama, am I now a religous bigot? I do not think so. Since I am a Christian, I know that my Bible tells me that I can not love God and hate my brother and if I say that I love God and I hate my brother then I am a liar.
Don't get me wrong, I am sure that there were some people who did not vote for Obama becuase of his race here in the South and elsewhere. I am sure that you could probably find some of them sitting in church Sunday. Just don't ignorantly put a whole group of people in that classification.
30 - roger nowosielski
leighann,
Who was commingling bigotry with religious bigotry? There is a close association, however, or at least a strong correlation, between fundamentalist religious views and bigotry, you've got to admit that. Religious fundamentalism is one of the major sources, isn't so? because it rarely is restricted to matters pertaining to religion but does spill over to all areas and spheres of life. No?
31 - Dave Nalle
well, the democrats began to back the civil rights movement and the racist dems had to go somewhere, and they found open arms and a home in the republican party, home of the wondrous "southern strategy." with the dems in control of the north, the republicans HAD to welcome southern white racists into the fold, and it's to their eternal shame that they did what they had to do in order to retain power.
It has to be pointed out that by the time Republicans began accepting these former racist democrats into the party most of them had significantly modified their viewpoint on racial issues to be much more moderate, or to focus on issues other than race, like states rights.
The southern strength of the GOP currently represents nothing racist. It's more a function of a greater interest in a weak federal government and a smaller and more fiscally responsible government among voters in southern states, including many blacks.
Dave
32 - Zaphod Beeblebrox
It has to be pointed out that by the time Republicans began accepting these former racist democrats into the party most of them had significantly modified their viewpoint on racial issues to be much more moderate...
Hey. I thought I was the only one here from a different planet. Nice to meet you Dean.
33 - Dan
After Democrats were dragged kicking and screaming into a new social order of racial equality, much to everyones surprise, (except white racists) blacks did not integrate as quickly as expected.
Thus, equality evolved into preferential treatment, and the Democratic party was happy to oblige with a new paradigm of the US as an institutionalized social justice hell-hole where victim mongering and class division brought dividends at the ballot box.
The calculated entrenchment of Democrats in government jobs makes voting an economic decision, and the near totalitarian exclusion of Conservatives in universities continue to feed the delusion of extreme social injustice to impressionable youngun's so that they can reliably be counted on to vote liberal. At least until they wise up, in which time a new, even bigger, crop is indoctrinated to replace them.
Patriotic, equality minded, traditional Americans had no choice but to leave this disgracefully cancerous institution.
34 - roger nowosielski
That's a mouthful.