Hey, here is one way to get more voter support

[kandrathe]

I'm pretty sure this is a story about civil rights. At least, Lyndon Johnson and George Wallace seemed to think so.

Well, sure. But it's not that simple either. The Republican party founded during Lincoln was one of Northern white protestants who were morally opposed to slavery. Under Hoover, it failed to stem off the great depression, and mostly languished as a northern minority party up until that transition time after the 1968 election, where Republicans successfully attracted the growingly disaffected southern white protestant politician.

For some, it had to do with the enhanced role of the federal government inserting itself again in race politics (as it did about a century earlier) where Goldwater championed for States rights in 1964. I haven't researched it in great depth, but I'm sure the implications of Goldwater's support for states rights were a nod for the segregationist practices in the old south. It seems a convenient time to resurrect a principle otherwise abused by all sides in most federal politics.

For others, it had to do with Reagan's (and the Republican's) embrace of religion, esp. evangelicals. But, then, the 60's and part of the 70's were the reprehensible era of the "Southern Strategy" in the Republican party. A sad fall from their abolitionist roots.