"Racists are essential to the GOP and without them, the GOP will not win elections." -GOP strategist

[american_ideals]

Ex-GOP strategist Bob Schneider says it out loud:

Racism and bigotry were part of the mainstream of GOP politics long before Donald Trump and Steve Bannon

We called them our useful fools. Racists and bigots elected Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and defeated George H.W. Bush in 1992. They were back in 2000 and turned out for his son George W. Bush.

...

The term “alt-right” is a new term to describe what has been in the GOP for decades. It is not new, just new labeling for people that were welcomed with open arms by the GOP by Richard Nixon. Racists are essential to the GOP and without them, the GOP will not win elections.

That is a dirty little open secret inside the GOP. It bothers me that Mr. Kristol’s comment is not a condemnation of bigotry and authoritarianism. It reads as a condemnation of bringing it into the mainstream of American politics but comes up short of an outright condemnation of bigotry.

http://www.chicagonow.com/politics-now/2018/01/racism-and-bigotry-were-part-of-the-mainstream-of-gop-politics-long-before-donald-trump-and-steve-bannon/

[american_ideals]

1. Wait, I have to post more. This article is too good.

The Republican Party was the party of civil rights in those days. The two major political parties flip-flopped during the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. In June of 1941, FDR issued Executive Order 8802. The order established the Fair Employment Practices Committee.

FEPC was a landmark and is one of the most important and the EO was one of the most important events between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In those days, White Southerners would prefer to be boiled in oil than be part of the Party of Lincoln. Solidly Democratic, the order sent a shockwave through Dixie. The seeds of discontent with the Democratic Party took root in the South.

From a Dixiecrat point of view, the final straw came on June 2, 1964, when a fellow Southern Democrat signed the Civil Rights Act.

Richard Nixon saw an opportunity and launched the Southern Strategy. With Nixon, the GOP abandoned their Lincoln Heritage except when it was convenient to pull Abe out of the grave to raise money in the North.

Richard Nixon became a GOP Moses and led the Southern Democrats to the Promised GOP land. Among his new disciples were Texas Governor John Connolly, who was in the car with President Kennedy that terrible day in Dallas in 1963. Connelly suffered a gunshot wound as well.

Go ahead and read the whole article - it's great.

[appalachiablue]

10. Also GOP Sen. Barry Goldwater of AZ opposed the Civil Rts. Act, ran in the 1964 pres. campaign

- GOP conservative Barry Goldwater of AZ campaigned as a 1964 presidential candidate, opposed the Civil Rights Act.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-04/birth-of-the-southern-strategy

WIKI, Southern Strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. As the civil rights movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South that had traditionally supported the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. It also helped push the Republican Party much more to the right.
In academia, the "Southern strategy" refers primarily to "top down" narratives of the political realignment of the South which suggest that Republican leaders consciously appealed to many white Southerners' racial grievances in order to gain their support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

[american_ideals]

14. "Was". Ha ha. "Is" a GOP electoral strategy, they mean.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. A good 40% of the population in this country are overtly racist and wish

harm on all people not like them, and the vast majority of them vote.

[american_ideals]

3. I'd be more optimistic

I'd say it's more like 18-20% - That 20% is the "basket of deplorables" Hillary so historically referred to.

That 20% is the approval rating of Nixon after he resigned (18%, I believe). That's the floor. That's what we need to get this president and the GOP down to.

[sellitman]

5. I cannot believe they are above this threshold

What must he do kill someone in cold blood on the street while Fox Films the whole thing?

[malthaussen]

7. No, I think that would raise his approval rating.

I have wondered the same thing. If anyone is "undecided" about Mr Trump, or thinks that his assets outweigh his liabilities, then what would it take to change their minds?

-- Mal

[Nitram]

9. I doubt that 40% could be termed "overtly racist." I'd put that at closer to 10-15%.

But I don't doubt 30-40% are racist.

[Gothmog]

4. The GOP Southern Strategy is alive and well

The GOP is the party of racism

[BigmanPigman]

6. Johnson said," "We've lost the Southern vote for the next 20 years"

and he was spot on. He knew how strong racism was, is and will be in the US. So did Putin. He cashed in on it and the GOP is their best friend in dividing America even further. Bannon and Miller are thrilled.

[FakeNoose]

11. Except that happened in 1964, so it's been over 50 years

... and few signs of anything changing. We can just hope they die off quickly.

Optimistically there are younger POC coming forward now, taking leadership roles and reviving the Democratic Party in the Southern states. It will take time but they'll make a difference and they deserve our support.

[malthaussen]

8. I still get the feeling he regrets it as bad tactics...

... and not out of any moral repugnance for racism. GOP strategists must be wondering how they are going to put together a winning strategy as demographics erase the advantage bigotry once gave them. They hold power now, but the writing is on the wall.

-- Mal

[american_ideals]

13. This is correct.

Yes. The current GOP coalition of billionaires and racists, where they’ve kicked out anyone somewhat centrist with explicit racism, is NOT a majority coalition. It’s not even close. The only way they can win national elections is with heavy cheating, lies, and propaganda. And even then I don’t think they can get close.

A big defeat in November points to the end of the GOP as we know it. Let’s work hard, GOTV, and push them off the ledge they climbed onto.

[Stuart G]

12. k and r for exposure...nt

[Gothmog]

15. From Malcom Nance

Link to tweet