On the New Republicans
The modern Republican Party has its origins with Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan rather than Lincoln. It’s predominant coalition was formed in the 1970’s, when two major blocks of the Democratic Party defected to the other side—namely, white supremacists and crusaders of Western culture and values:
The Southern Strategy
The U.S. political landscape was forever changed when, in a moment of profound moral leadership, Democratic President Lyndon Johnson broke with much of his own party in order to pass the Civil Rights Act—relying heavily on support from the Republican minority in Congress, with whom the bill was approved by a margin of 79 percent in the Senate and 76 percent in the House of Representatives. Southern Democrats, who overwhelmingly opposed the measure, considered this a deep betrayal–particularly given how integral their support had been for maintaining consistent Democratic control over Congress.
Sensing a moment of opportunity, Republican Senator-turned-presidential candidate Barry Goldwater formulated what he called the “Southern Strategy.” The idea was to peel the South away from the Democrats by appealing to outrage and concern among white southerners about the Civil Rights Act and what it may mean for them. He was wildly successful in this effort, winning five of the “Deep South” states—the first Republican to accomplish this feat since Reconstruction. However, most Americans, to include most Republicans, balked at the naked racism of his campaign, contributing to the landslide re-election of President Johnson in 1964.
However, despite Goldwater’s defeat, the South refused to return to the Democratic fold. In the 1968 election they would overwhelmingly support segregationist third-party candidate David Wallace instead, spoiling the election for Democratic candidate Hubert Humphries, and allowing Nixon to narrowly win the White House.
In the aftermath, Nixon and his successors would consolidate these voters as Republicans through refining and expanding Goldwater’s “southern strategy”–advocating for policies that support “law and order,” “state’s rights” and are “colorblind” in order to undermine immigration, civil rights and affirmative action. The South has remained solidly Republican so long as these tactics have been in place—which is why, for instance, the party of Abraham Lincoln is now leading the charge to destroy the Civil Rights Act.
The Neo-Conservative movement
The neo-conservative (neocon) movement was formed in the 1960’s. It was comprised of former Marxists who grew disenchanted with communism as a result of Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical transformation of the USSR—and subsequently became the most hawkish advocates of the longstanding progressive mandate to expand liberalism worldwide.
However, as a result of the Vietnam War, the American public grew increasingly hostile to these interventions. And given that the war was initiated and expanded by a Democratic Administration, as were most major foreign incursions at the time, it was the Democrats who stood poised to face the political consequences of this shift. The party attempted to rebrand itself: in 1972 they ran on a “New Left” platform, spearheaded by George McGovern, emphasizing foreign policy restraint. In response, the interventionist wing of the Democratic Party voted for Richard Nixon instead: while Nixon established a détente with China (albeit to put more pressure on the USSR), and worked to draw down the U.S. presence in Vietnam, he was also relentless in attacking his political rivals as hippies and feckless defeatists who were poisoning America’s culture and hamstringing American greatness.
This message resonated with a large number of Democrats who had supported LBJ’s escalations in Vietnam and were themselves uncomfortable with the posture and policies of the “New Left.” As a result, Nixon successfully peeled off scores of Democrats, contributing significantly to his landslide re-election.
The New Base
These two elements, Southerners and foreign policy hawks, now dominate the Republican Party—to its detriment, and the detriment of the country.