Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Review Method: Peer Reviewed Abstract: We have proposed a view of the partisan realignment of Southern whites toward the Republican party over the past four decades that emphasizes continuity with the particular historic racial animosities of whites living in that section of the United States, and their close association with evangelical Protestantism. We review previously presented data in support of four hypotheses: (1) Geographic divisions in the presidential vote since 1980 have been highly correlated with those in the only two eras of American history in which the major political parties were sharply opposed on racial issues (the antebellum period of 1848 to 1860 and the civil rights era of 1964 to 1972), but not with those in other, less racialized political eras. (2) Whites living in the old Confederacy continue to show more negative racial attitudes than whites living elsewhere in the country, by any of the usual indicators, and net of other variables that might contribute to it. (3) Conservatism on racial issues has a stronger effect on Republican party identification and presidential voting among Southern whites than among whites living elsewhere in the country. Sectional differences in the impact of non-racial conservatism are minimal. (4) Southern white Protestant evangelicals express higher levels of racism than they do outside the South, or than do whites of other faiths in either section of the country. However they are generally not more conservative than white evangelicals elsewhere in the country on non-racial issues. The special affinity that Southern white evangelicals have for the Republican party seems to be best explained by their racial, not their non-racial, conservatism. We interpret the data as indicating the persisting political effects of traditional white Southern culture.
We then turn our attention to the period from just before the major activities of the civil rights movement to the period just after them (1956-1972) to examine the early beginnings of the nexus between racial conservatism and religious fundamentalism in the white South. We report several findings: (1) the sharp racial polarization in Southern politics reached an early peak in 1964, followed by a higher peak in 1968, a seemingly stable level of polarization; (2) the greater support for segregation in the white South than in the North remained surprisingly stable through the 1960’s; (3) Southern whites, like Northern whites, quickly perceived the growing polarization of the parties over racial issues, but Southern whites also saw the Democratic party as moving away from then; (4) religious fundamentalism became more widespread as the 1960’s wore on, but did not do so in the North; (5) Southern white evangelicals stand out as the religious group displaying most racial animosity as early as the mid-1960’s; and (6) both racial conservatism and religiosity begin showing closer associations with Southern white support for the Republicans by the mid-to-late 1960’s, depending on the indicator.
We conclude that these data emphasize both the swiftness with which the political winds changed in the South in the 1960’s, and the pivotal nature of the presidential election campaigns of 1964 and 1968. That is a story that has become conventional in the political behavior literature. But they also emphasize the impressive continuity between the dynamics of whites’ partisanship in the South from that era to the present. In particular they emphasize the unique nexus of racism and religious fundamentalism as political forces in the white South.
