Why is the MSM giving Farage so much airtime? Why does a neo fascist get platformed so often? It's beyond ridiculous. It gives all his moronic, racist, bigoted followers the belief he will be PM. Which is not going to happen.
Reagan launched a bid for the nomination against the unelected Ford (Ford was appointed VP then ascended to the Presidency when Nixon resigned).
Carter won the South because he was the first born again evangelical candidate from the South. That was the first election where evangelicals mattered.
And the Blue South was only in the process of realigning then.
IIRC, it wasn't so much "Reagan launched ...", as some Reagan supporters were frustrated that he hadn't won the nomination in 76. But they began planning straight away, and never got behind Ford.
"Reagan campaigned for Ford in twenty states against the Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter, who would win the general election. However, in Washington state, a faithless elector gave Reagan one electoral vote instead of Ford."
Republicans were traditionally the party of Lincoln and anti-slavery, the segregationist South was solidly Democratic until LBJ passed Civil Rights Acts in 1960s. California was the centre of the defence industry during the Cold War and was a swing state, Nixon and Reagan both Californians.
Thanks! New Reagan was from California (Hollywood smooth talked!); hadn't known Nixon was. The defence industry base in California also interesting;... drove the silicon valley? Then hardwear build moved to Seattle area (Boeing), and Virginia?
Still blownaway segregation South was Dem...
Really so confused now about how that "flip" of Dem party happened (and republicans to now racist policies/rhetoric!). Much history to read/listen to... (incase anyone knows great podcasts that explain!)
Not an expert but Perlman’s Nixonland is a good book on the 1960s. There were other factors alongside backlash to
civil rights and racism e.g. abortion and rise of evangelical Christianity in the South ‘the Moral Majority’, the NRA, decline of the trade unions.
I find it fascinating how the red blue split has evolved from the Democrats representing much of the Confederacy post civil war , though the FDR times, this map where California was Nixon then Reagan, Mondale only winning one state plus DC, to the modern day roughly coastal blue and central red
LBJ as a southern Democrat President passed civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Nixon and successive Republican Presidents took advantage of this (‘the Southern Strategy’) by dog whistle politics, focus on ‘law and order’, ‘war on drugs’, ‘welfare queens’.
The Dems lost the South in the 1960s due to Kennedy and Johnson’s civil rights legislation - Carter’s candidacy as a southern Democrat, was a one-off exception to this steady trend. The last hurrah essentially.
-76 very much the last election of the "solid south" for the Dems. Glimmers of it under Clinton but this the last time all of the states of the old Confederacy voted Democratic (save Virginia). Last time a Dem carried a majority of southern states.
-Most recent election a Dem won w/o California.
-Also note how population has transformed the map by comparison today. Texas and Florida barely worth more than New York alone. Texas same number of EVs as Illinois. Midwest with far more votes than today, and the south, west and southwest with fewer.
-Last time Texas, Mississippi, S Carolina and Alabama voted Democratic.
-And the last time a Dem won a maj of the counties.
-Also the last time before 2024 that every state swung in the same direction. Reagan went on to win a landslide 4 years later. A reminder of how quickly things can shift...
I was an au pair in Washington DC at the time of Reagan’s win. All the public buildings were wrapped in yellow bows for the hostages, and there were constant vigils. I even met a homeless person who voted RR because Carter was ‘a weak president’
Prompting a question about all democracies: Why do voters invariably blame the existing govt for events caused externally, like inflation, wars, financial crises? Are they just thick ss two planks?
… with West Virginia amongst the few Democratic redoubts — in line with its political orientation from the time of the Great Depression/New Deal, to be sure, but providing another indication of how much the political landscape has been reordered since ca 1980.
This is more proof the south and the rust belt vote as a block. Probably because they share economic concerns. If the left appealed to that, as the right appeals to the grievance it helps stoke, a path to a landslide can be seen.
Oh it seems that data would confirm this.
It doesn't explain why they vote for politicians hellbent on lowering taxes on the richest, cutting regulations for corporations, etc, though..!
If people voted in their economic interest the right would never get in, there are always more poor than rich. They have to find/create other issues.
Although it helps when the left don’t go all in with a ‘help the disadvantaged.’
In the UK Jeremy Crobyn had many fault, but the basic messaging of his campaign “for the many not the few” should be the starting point of any centre left parties campaign.
Texas, like much of the south, mostly voted dem in those days (or their segregationist offshoots). Remember, it was the south that revolted when the first Republican president was elected
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Carter won the South because he was the first born again evangelical candidate from the South. That was the first election where evangelicals mattered.
IIRC, it wasn't so much "Reagan launched ...", as some Reagan supporters were frustrated that he hadn't won the nomination in 76. But they began planning straight away, and never got behind Ford.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_1976_presidential_campaign
The USA has certainly changed!
Still blownaway segregation South was Dem...
civil rights and racism e.g. abortion and rise of evangelical Christianity in the South ‘the Moral Majority’, the NRA, decline of the trade unions.
-Most recent election a Dem won w/o California.
-And the last time a Dem won a maj of the counties.
-Also the last time before 2024 that every state swung in the same direction. Reagan went on to win a landslide 4 years later. A reminder of how quickly things can shift...
? And that would be?
It doesn't explain why they vote for politicians hellbent on lowering taxes on the richest, cutting regulations for corporations, etc, though..!
Although it helps when the left don’t go all in with a ‘help the disadvantaged.’