The Southern Strategy and Lee Atwater

[Riot]

Contemporary examples of the Republican "Southern Strategy" (or "dogwhistles for racists")

Reverend Wright

"Not a real American"

Where's his birth certificate?

"I'll take him at his word, if he says he's not a Muslim".

"palling around with terrorists"

Welfare president (this one is classic! Reagan started it)

Voter ID law changes "everyone who normally participates in society should have an ID".

When Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he famously said that he realized that he'd lost southern "Dixiecrat" Democrats (who were against equal rights for Negroes) to the Democratic Party "for a generation".

He was wrong - they are still Republicans today, two and-a-half generations later. And the plutocratic, wealthy business arm of the Republican party (the "power" in Washington) actively courts their votes.