Interesting take on the Southern Strategy.

[j brown's body]

Correct. Wallace, the hardcore racist/segregationist party of American Independent Party’s candidate, not Humphrey, the Dem Party nominee.

13 of 56 states Nixon personally visited between September 7th and October 31st, 1968 equals 23% of his time trying to win voters. That’s much more than “barely”.

Nixon tried to win the South with a “law and order” message that was drowned out by Wallace’s racist platform.

Factually, Nixon did invest time/effort in the South, but failed because he didn’t allow his true racist beliefs to come out publicly, much.

In fairness to Nixon though, Wallace was pretty damn hard to beat when it came to racism.

Apparently Wallace considered becoming a Republican. The IRS began auditing his brother. Wallace decided to not switch parties. The audit was dropped. Could be a coincidence. But with Nixon....

 

[RaleBulgarian]

Apparently Wallace considered becoming a Republican. The IRS began auditing his brother. Wallace decided to not switch parties. The audit was dropped. Could be a coincidence. But with Nixon....

It wouldn’t be surprising.

 

[Mithrae]

Trump is a eugenicist. Biden is not. That's quite a distinction.

Trump might be in favour of eugenics, if someone explained to him what it is, but telling a small mixed race crowd ('mostly white') of Minnesotans that they have 'good genes' is more of a dog whistle than a bullhorn. I suggested to @ataraxia that Trump's rhetoric probably wouldn't have been considered particularly shocking in the 1970s or 80s, but frankly even in this century - at least viewed alongside Biden's slipups - for the most part they're more or less what you might expect from a boorish old rich white man, or for that matter plenty of rough around the edges lower class, poorly-educated or rural folk. It's not a different or significantly more racist message, it's just the same sort of dated Eurocentric worldview with most of the polish and spin we're used to from politicians removed.