The myth of the "southern strategy"

The Post said on July 26, 2019, “Most Americans have heard the story of the Southern strategy: The Republican Party, in the wake of the civil rights movement, decided to court Southern white voters by capitalizing on their racial fears. Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater first wielded this strategy in 1964 and Richard Nixon perfected it in 1968 and 1972, turning the solidly Democratic South into a bastion of Republicanism.”

The Washington Post lied. Nixon rejected the Southern Strategy. In 1968, he received but 13.52% of the votes in Mississippi — a state that had given Goldwater 87.14% of its vote four years earlier. Nixon supported civil rights and the end of segregation in both words and deeds. …

The fact is, the Southern Strategy as described by the Washington Post failed miserably. Barry Goldwater carried only five of the 11 Confederate states and his home state of Arizona using that strategy in 1964.

Nixon rejected Goldwater’s Southern Strategy four years later — and took 5 of the 6 Confederate states that LBJ took in his landslide. Democrats took all the Goldwater states. The percentages of the votes for Nixon by state in 1968 reflect that.