Southern Strategy Editorial Rebutted - Commentary by J.A. Davis

Jeff Davis

Jeff Davis is a retired radio-TV journalist living in Gainesville, GA. Active in civic and political affairs, he is past president of the Georgia Jaycees, former vice president of the US and the world Jaycees, former campaign chairman of the Georgia Republican party. He voluntarily serves as chairman of the Georgia Heritage Council. He is a collateral descendant of President Jefferson Davis.

Southern Strategy Editorial Rebutted, by J. A. Davis

This letter is a rebuttal to a Nov. 22, 2005 Editorial in The Macon Telegraph which is posted below.

Editors:
What an astonishment it was to read your editorial relating to voter rights and the references to The Southern Strategy. As one of the participants in The Southern Strategy I can help with some corrections.

First, the Southern Strategy (hereafter simply the Strategy) was initiated by Richard Nixon in 1960. Barry Goldwater never claimed origination of it, though he did participate in its development. Some lazy historians and editors didn't recognize it until later. It continues today. Check the red and blue on the electoral map.

The strategy itself was to take advantage of the deteriorating loyalty of Southern Democrats with their party which had taken a leftward path toward a bigger more intrusive national government.

It had nothing to do with reducing or blocking civil rights and, in fact, Republicans enunciated strong civil rights planks in both the 1960 and 1964 National Republican platforms. The first meaningful civil rights legislation had just passed in the Eisenhower-Nixon administration.

The strategy worked with Southerners of all races. In 1960, 33% of the black voters supported Richard Nixon. Republicans get no where near that ratio today.

Bibb County supported Nixon in 1960. Georgia had the highest percentage increase of Republican votes in the nation.

As a result in the early 1960's, Georgia became a competitive two party state for the first time since Reconstruction.

I know because I was Georgia Republican campaign chairman and one of several involved in the development of the Southern Strategy.

If you want to extend the Voting Rights Act, let's remember Equality under the law and let all the states equally comply. Maybe that way, 'Reconstruction' can finally begin to end in the South.

GOP opposition akin to 'Southern Strategy'
The Macon Telegraph
Tue., November 22, 2005

It's not particularly surprising - actually, it was predictable - that Georgia's Republicans would oppose renewal of the Voting Rights Act even though that opposition doesn't have a snowball's chance in a very hot place of succeeding. Even President Bush and his attorney general, as well as Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, support renewal the act, which is to expire in 2007, for another 25 years. Section 5 of that act, mandating federal oversight and preclearance of voting laws adopted in Southern states, almost certainly will be approved.
And this is as it should be, despite the efforts of lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a first-term Republican from the West Georgia city of Grantville who has mobilized an effort to either scrap Section 5 of the act or make it apply equally to every state. Westmoreland, who tends to take unpopular stands - he voted against an aid package to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims - says he has the support of most of Georgia's Republicans. He cites a study that indicates that black voters have a higher turnout rate than white voters, and that black candidates now are frequently elected to office, as the reason why the act is no longer needed.
This approach - a thinly veiled continuation of the "Southern Strategy" designed by Sen. Barry Goldwater decades ago - is flawed in several ways: First, should the act be extended to all 50 states, it would seriously dilute the effect of challenges to laws that have civil-rights concerns. Most of our states don't have a history of enacting laws, such as poll taxes, designed to undercut minority voters.
And perhaps most important, there is clear evidence that Georgia's Republicans are actively seeking ways to reduce the effectiveness of minority voters, who, incidentally, tend to support Democratic candidates. The most recent example of this is the voter photo ID law passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly.
Although political appointees were instrumental in overturning a Justice Department staff recommendation that concluded the photo ID voter law would adversely impact minority voting, federal court challenge of that decision has resulted in that law being placed on hold. And for the foreseeable future, despite the possibility of political intervention in Justice Department decisions, the Voting Rights Act remains the best vehicle to protect the rights of voters.
www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/opinion/13227414.htm

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