GameOver22 said:
Just to be clear, I'm talking about the movement of the electorate away from the Democratic party in presidential elections. I focused on this because you mentioned Carter's victory in 1976. You're essentially cherry picking an election to try and prove a point that just isn't true and is actually irrelevant to your argument. The fact is....there has been a mass migration of white voters (particularly the upper class) away from Democratic presidential candidates and the Democratic party in the South.
The problem is you're making an argument that Republicans had a better record on civil rights than Democrats......which I highly question. The dominant causal factor is region, not party (I really want to emphasize this point). If you look, Southern Democrats and Southern Republicans were both much more anti-civil rights than northerners. It just so happened there was a larger portion of Democrats in the South. Also, the Civil Rights Act passed on the back of northern support from both Dems. and Reps.....not just Republican members.
As for Goldwater's or Johnson's true beliefs, its really irrelevant. Have you ever talked to a politician? They all have agendas and will justify their arguments in whatever way they see fit....I mean they're pretty much pathological liars, but that's another discussion. That said, I'd take Goldwater's justifications with a grain of salt. The fact is, the voting electorate, interpreted it a different way, as can be seen with blacks supporting the Democrats at about a 90% clip, as well as the movement of white southeners away from the Democratic party.
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Are you kidding? I already posted facts. Data. Where is your data? This statement proves that you are incapable of being objection. It is a fact that Republicans supported Civil Rights far greater than Democrats did.
Again:
Since 1933, Republicans had a more positive record on civil rights than the Democrats. In the twenty-six major civil rights votes since 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 % of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 % of the votes.
Also about the South:
Democratic incumbents still held sway over voters in many states, especially those of the Deep South. In fact, until 2002, Democrats still had much control over Southern politics. It wasn't until the 1990s that Democratic control gradually collapsed, starting with the elections of 1994, in which Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, through the rest of the decade.
A huge portion of Representatives, Senators, and voters who were referred to as Reagan Democrats in the 1980s were conservative Southern Democrats. An interesting exception to this trend is Arkansas, where to this day all but one statewide elected officials are Democrats. (The state has, however, given its electoral votes to the GOP in the past three Presidential elections, although in 1992 and 1996, "favorite son" Bill Clinton was the candidate and won each time.)