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| Joseph Crespino |
Joseph Crespino argues that racial gerrymandering which favored the creation of both majority-minority districts and GOP-stronghold districts have served to silence white moderate Democrats in the U.S. South, He falsely puts almost all of the blame on the Republican Party, when black Democrats were just as invested in this process: "The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act did not usher in immediate
political influence for black Southerners. African-Americans and voting
rights advocates had to work for years to overcome vote dilution
schemes that preserved white political control. By 1982, when Congress
reauthorized the Voting Rights Act, Congressional districts were redrawn
in ways that led to significant gains in black representation. To do
that, however, officials often had to pack those districts with high
numbers of black voters, along with handfuls of liberal whites. In the
process, surrounding districts became increasingly 'white' and
conservative. Republicans were well aware of how these packed districts
would ease their election, and they eagerly supported the process. It
made for an odd alliance between Southern blacks and white
conservatives. The losers were white moderate Democrats."
The Emory University history professor continues about the decline of white moderate Democratic politics: "Southern Republicans had a terrible time [back in the 1960s through 1980s] trying to defeat moderate
white Democrats who portrayed the G.O.P. as the country club party, one
that was out of touch with the concerns of decent working people.
These days, however, you’ve got a generation of working class folks
in the Deep South who have no memory of the Southern Democratic parties
that produced Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Of course, redistricting is not the only issue contributing to the
collapse of the Democratic Party in the Deep South, but it is an
important one. Today, when Southern Republican candidates go in front
of white working-class audiences in the Deep South and tell them that
the Democrats are the party of welfare, the party of the 'dependent
class,' there are no viable moderate Democratic candidates on the ballot
to tell them otherwise."
