Democrats in the South: The Race Question

2008 ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
John Roy Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Active Part ◽  
The South ◽  
Army Officers ◽  
Official Recognition ◽  
Do So

This chapter explores how, when John Roy Lynch came to Chicago, whether or not he should take an active part in politics was one of the first questions that occurred to him. He had no intention of actively participating politically in local matters, but it occurred to him that like some other retired army officers, he could, with propriety, take an active part in national matters. But after going over the field very carefully, Lynch found that conditions nationally, as well as locally, were not such as would justify him in doing so. In fact, beginning with the unfortunate administration of President William Howard Taft, the colored American had no standing with either of the two major parties. The Democratic party, nationally, was still a white man's party and, beginning with the Taft administration, the Republican party was no longer a champion of human rights. In fact, the policy inaugurated by President Taft was equivalent to transforming the Republican party, as far as it was in the power of an administration to do so, into a race proscriptive party. In other words, racial identity regardless of merit was made a bar to official recognition.

How Texas Turned Red

2020 ◽  
pp. 90-108
Author(s):  
Kenneth P. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The South ◽  
Dormant State ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter explains how Texas came to align with the Republican Party. Texas is now the essential Republican state, but for most of its history it was part of the solid Democratic South. In the mid-twentieth century, the Texas Democratic Party divided into liberal and conservative factions—partly over race and civil rights but also over a range of questions including New Deal economic policies and anti-communism. Texas Democrats engaged in what V. O. Key called the most intense intraparty fight of any state in the South. The long-dormant state Republican Party began to revive in the 1960s as many Texans became alienated from a national Democratic Party that was shifting to the left. Republican gains produced a period of balanced two-party competition that lasted from the 1970s through the 1990s. By the early 2000s, the GOP established dominance, making Texas the nation’s largest and most powerful Republican state.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
William L. Barney
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Political Force ◽  
National Convention ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
Do So ◽  
Abolition Movement

Sectional tensions over slavery persisted since the writing of the Constitution and exploded into secession and the Civil War in 1860–61. The resistance to slavery of African Americans, both enslaved and free, prodded the consciences of enough Northern whites to produce the abolition movement and emerge as a political force in its own right. Southerners recognized that the morality of slavery was at the heart of the issue and sought in vain to make Northerners acknowledge slavery as a morally just institution and allow it to grow and expand. The Northern refusal to do so fueled the rise of the Republican Party and split the Democratic Party at its national convention in the spring of 1860, setting the stage for the election of Abraham Lincoln and the outbreak of the secession crisis.

scholarly journals Southern Politics After the Election of Presidential Clinton: Continued Transformation Toward the Republican Party?

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Hadley
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Politics ◽  
Southern State ◽  
White House ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Democratic Vote

To whom does the South belong politically, now that an all-southern ticket has reclaimed the White House for the Democratic party? Review of 1992 voting returns for national, statewide, and legislative races in the South, contrasted with those from earlier presidential years, lead to only one conclusion: the South continues to move toward the Republican party. The Clinton-Gore ticket ran behind its percentage of the national vote in most southern states, as well as behind all Democratic candidates in statewide races, and would have won without any southern electoral votes; whereas Bush-Quayle ran ahead of their percentage of the national vote in every southern state except Clinton’s Arkansas, while Republicans gained seats in southern legislatures and congressional delegations. It is suggested that southern electoral college votes won by Democratic presidential candidates in 1976 and 1992 hinged upon Democratic vote-getters in races for statewide offices in each state carried except the presidential candidates’ home states.

Critical Perspectives: Did Prosperity Contribute to the South's Abandonment of the Democratic Party?

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-432
Author(s):  
W. J. Rorabaugh
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
The South ◽  
George Bush ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Generation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Critical Perspectives

During the past generation the South largely has abandoned its traditional commitment to the Democratic Party and emerged as an increasingly strong bastion of the Republican party. In 2004, George Bush won 58 percent in the South but only 48 percent in the rest of the country. (Throughout this article the South is defined as the former Confederate states plus Kentucky and Oklahoma.) In contrast, as recently as 1960, John Kennedy carried the South; excluding the South, Nixon beat Kennedy. The South's commitment to the Democrats lasted more than 150 years, from the days of Thomas Jefferson until the 1960s. How, then, do we explain the decline of the Democrats and the rise of the Republicans in the South in the past forty years?

scholarly journals Why Local Party Leaders Don't Support Nominating Centrists

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Broockman ◽  
Nicholas Carnes ◽  
Melody Crowder-Meyer ◽  
Christopher Skovron
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Elections ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Local Party ◽  
Do So

AbstractWould giving party leaders more influence in primary elections in the United States decrease elite polarization? Some scholars have argued that political party leaders tend to support centrist candidates in the hopes of winning general elections. In contrast, the authors argue that many local party leaders – especially Republicans – may not believe that centrists perform better in elections and therefore may not support nominating them. They test this argument using data from an original survey of 1,118 county-level party leaders. In experiments, they find that local party leaders most prefer nominating candidates who are similar to typical co-partisans, not centrists. Moreover, given the choice between a more centrist and more extreme candidate, they strongly prefer extremists: Democrats do so by about 2 to 1 and Republicans by 10 to 1. Likewise, in open-ended questions, Democratic Party leaders are twice as likely to say they look for extreme candidates relative to centrists; Republican Party leaders are five times as likely. Potentially driving these partisan differences, Republican leaders are especially likely to believe that extremists can win general elections and overestimate the electorate's conservatism by double digits.

scholarly journals Dixie Backlash? Anti-Southern Affect and Party Support Outside the South

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 179-206
Author(s):  
Jonathan Knuckey
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
The Political ◽  
The South ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Partisan Change ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Party Support ◽  
Election Studies

The literature on partisan change in the American electorate has devoted considerable attention to explaining Republican gains in the South. Less time has been devoted to examining changes outside of the South, where a Democratic majority has persisted-and indeed grown-over the past two decades. This article examines whether the realignment toward the Republican Party in the South has resulted in a move toward the Democratic Party outside the South. Specifically, it is posited that the growing influence of the South within the Republican Party has resulted in a backlash against the GOP. Using data from the American National Election Studies, this article examines affect toward southerners as a determinant of the political behavior of non-southerners. Findings indicate that even after controlling for other explanatory variables, affect toward southerners is a significant predictor of how non-southerners evaluate the political parties, as well as vote choice in the 2008 presidential election. While partisanship and ideology remain the best predictors of vote choice among non-southerners, anti-southern backlash should not be discounted for the GOP's "Northern problem" in recent elections.

scholarly journals From Strom to Barack: Race, Ideology, and the Transformation of the Southern Party System

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Alan I. Abramowitz
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Racial Composition ◽  
The South ◽  
Hispanic Voters ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Race Ideology

The southern party system has undergone a dramatic transformation since the 1960s, a transformation that has affected both the electoral bases of the parties and their leadership. This transformation has involved two related trends-a shift in the racial composition of the Democratic Party at the mass and elite levels and an ideological realignment that has produced a much wider gap between the ideological orientations and policy preferences of Democratic and Republican leaders and voters. In the South, to an even greater extent than in the rest of the nation, the Democratic Party has become increasingly dependent on the support of nonwhite voters. Meanwhile, despite the growing size of the nonwhite electorate in the South, the Republican base has remained overwhelmingly white. The growing dependence of the Democratic Party in the South on African-American and more recently Hispanic votes has contributed to the party's increasing liberalism because African-American and Hispanic voters tend to strongly support activist government. And this trend has also contributed to the growing conservatism of the Republican base as conservative whites have continued to flee the Democratic Party for the GOP. As a result, the two-party system in the South now consists of a Democratic Party dominated by nonwhites and white liberals and a Republican Party dominated by white conservatives.

Industrial Revolution in the United States and Its Impact on the Relationship between the North and the South

2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (6) ◽  
pp. 86-98
Author(s):  
A.V. Taigildin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
A Minor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The impact of the industrial revolution in the United States on the relationship between its two economic and political regions – the North and the South – was discussed. In the first half of the 19th century, the interests of some regions diverged as the country proceeded with its economic development. This turned out to be a primary cause of contradictions between the North and the South that led to the Civil War of 1861–1865. The development of trade, industry, and transport system during the period under consideration was analyzed. Their role in the conflict was revealed. Special attention was paid to the land question, around which the disputes among industrialists of the North, farmers, and plantation owners of the South revolved. The problem of slavery as a reason for the disagreement between the two regions was emphasized. Based on the literature data, it was shown that the issue of slavery was a minor one. It was used to merely provide cover for the actual economic problems. The conclusion was made that the industrial revolution in the United States triggered political changes, which resulted in the formation of the Republican Party and in the split within the Democratic Party.

North Carolina and Harry Truman, 1944–1948

1975 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-300
Author(s):  
A. G. Grayson
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Good Measure ◽  
The South ◽  
Conservative Coalition ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Do So

The South was an important partner in the electoral coalition which kept the Democratic Party in power throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but it was rarely a satisfied one. Rumblings of discontent at the allegedly radical New Deal emanated from the region from the earliest days of Roosevelt's Presidency and by 1937 political commentators were talking of a ‘ conservative coalition ’ of Southern Democrats and Republicans challenging New Deal measures in Congress. North Carolina provided a good measure of support for this coalition, especially in the person of Senator Josiah W. Bailey, and it continued to do so when the coalition became more effective than ever during Truman's Presidency. Yet a study of the state in Truman's early years reveals the solid strength which the National Democratic Party still possessed there in 1948. To some extent this strength was unique but some conclusions are valid for much of the South.

Foreigners' Rights to Work and Fair Labour Practices in South Africa: A Review of the South African Labour Legislation and Jurisprudence

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Mangu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
The South ◽  
Legislation And Jurisprudence ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
Lay Persons ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Labour Legislation

After several decades of apartheid rule, which denied human rights to the majority of the population on the ground of race and came to be regarded as a crime against humanity, South Africa adopted its first democratic Constitution in the early 1990s. The 1996 Constitution, which succeeded the 1993 interim Constitution, is considered one of the most progressive in the world. In its founding provisions, it states that South Africa is a democratic state founded on human dignity, the achievement of equality, the advancement of human rights and freedoms. The Constitution enshrines fundamental human rights in a justiciable Bill of Rights as a cornerstone of democracy. Unfortunately, in the eyes of a number of politicians, officials and lay-persons, the rights in the Bill of Rights accrue to South African citizens only. Xenophobia, which has been rampant since the end of apartheid, seems to support the idea that foreigners should not enjoy these rights. Foreign nationals have often been accused of posing a threat to South African citizens with regard to employment opportunities. In light of the South African legislation and jurisprudence, this article affirms the position of the South African labour law that foreign nationals are indeed protected by the Constitution and entitled to rights in the Bill of Rights, including the rights to work and fair labour practices.

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