The Southern Strategy was a political tactic the Republican Party, Richard Nixon in particular, developed and employed in the 1968 presidential campaign to “flip the South” by capitalizing on white fear and resentment of actual and pending societal shifts. And by societal shifts, I mean Black folks being treated more fairly and equally due to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of ’64 and ’65.
Nixon and crew popularized all the classic coded terminology: “… opposition to government mandates,” “law and order,” “family values,” “government overreach,” and who can forget “state’s rights.”
The not-so-subtle message was, “These Black folks are making too many advances too quickly and the Democrats are responsible. And if you don’t take action, Blacks and Democrats will take YOUR country from YOU!”
There were of course the Barry Goldwaters and George Wallaces and Strom Thurmonds of the world who used very direct language on these issues to get their points across, with limited success. But Nixon’s lightbulb moment came when he understood that your run-of-the-mill racist doesn’t want to openly acknowledge themselves as a racist. But if you give them some language or a talking point to mask their racism behind and a scapegoat to blame their personal failures and shortcomings on, then voila!
Nixon rode the Southern Strategy to two trips to the White House before Ronald Reagan took the flaming tiki torch and the “welfare queen,” “law and order,” and “state’s rights” rhetoric that locked down Southern white votes for generations.
Fast forward to 2016.
To win the presidency Donald Trump needed to turn out low-propensity-to-vote whites not only in the South but wherever they may be hiding. While the Southern Strategy was effective, using the Blacks as Boogieman approach wouldn’t push him across the finish line. So, he found a new target — illegal immigrants.
Even though Barack Obama’s administration deported an unprecedented number of people in the country illegally (drawing the ire of many on the Left), Trump’s crew decided there was an existential crisis of bloodthirsty Brown folks coming up through Mexico ready to kill and rape the women and children and take jobs from hardworking, earnest, flag-waving, God-fearing white Americans.
And it worked.
In 2024 it graduated from being the Southern Strategy to the overall Republican strategy. Like most sequels, Trump took the winning formula and amped it up, because why have only one boogieman when you can have ‘em all. Trump not only played all the greatest hits, he threw in a few more for good measure:
“Illegal alien rapists, murderers, and terrorists are still coming for YOU and YOUR family!”
“Immigrants are poisoning the blood of America!”
“Blacks are using affirmative action and DEI to take YOUR jobs and YOUR child’s seat in college!”
“Critical Race theory is going to erase YOUR glorious white history!”
“Transgender athletes are taking YOUR little girl’s spot on the team!”
“They want to defund the police to make it easier for the illegal alien murderers to get YOU and YOUR family!”
“The real LGBT agenda is to brainwash YOUR child into changing gender!”
“The federal government shouldn’t be allowed to protect women’s rights!”
Enough Americans bought into the idea that they weren’t where they wanted to be in life or their well-being was threatened because of some evil cabal of illegal aliens, unqualified Blacks, woke Swifties, and transgender miscreants, so Trump was the savior they needed.
And here we are again.
Having survived the first go-round with Trump we will certainly make it through round 2, even though Trump, just as Martin Luther King, Jr. said about Goldwater — “(he) articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand.”
So if you’re down with the Republicans, the new Southern Strategy, and Donald J. Trump, I’ve got 6 words for you …