The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 28, 1977, Page Page 4, Image 4
Carter put
By CHRIS DEESE
Gamecock Staff Writer
Southern politics have changed
dramatically in the past 25 years,
especially regarding the
emergence of black political
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tists said Thursday in a discussion
> at Gambrell Hall.
"The central theme of political
change in the South is the
emergence of blacks," said Jack
Bass, writer-in-residence at S.C.
State College.
Other panelists were Walter
DeVries, a private consultant for a
public opinion polling service and
co-author with Bass of "The
Transformation of Southern
' < Politics," and Earl Black, of USC's
department of government & inV
ternational studies and writer of
"Southern Governors and Civil
Rights."
hi The three panelists agreed that
future shifts in the Southern
political structure will not be
ignored by the rest of the country.
"Carter brought the South into the
national mainstream, Mass saia.
BASS SAID a black person who
couldn't even vote until passage of
the Voting Rights Act in 1955, now
has a chance to be a vice(
presidential nominee. "It would
still be a political liability," he
said, "but not a great one."
I^ast year a bill to extend the
, Voting Rights Act until 1983 came
, before the Senate, Bass said, "and
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South back
two-thirds of Southern Democrats
supported it-the first time a
majority of Southern Democrats
voted for civil rights legislation."
He said the vote was 9-6 for the
extension. In 1966. it was 5-1
against a similar proposal.
Black said the racial emphasis
snm in southern politics was
evident in development of the
Republicans' "Southern strategy." '
He said, "The Southern strategy is
that black votes don't count. It's
hunting where the ducks are;
make up for lost black votes by
gaining white Southern voters."
Goldwater used this strategy and
carried the Deep South in 1964,
Black said. "This was the last
great election preceding massive
black voter registration," said
Black. "It was essentially a white
election."
THE STRATEGY worked in 1968
because Wu'lace's third-party
candidacy divided the Democrats
and thus weakened the Democratic
vote. The strategy also worked
four years later "because of the
weakness of the Democratic
candidate (McGovern)." These
were two instances of failure of the
traditional bloc voting, according
to party.
"It wasn't until 1976 that the
Southern strategy got its first real
test-for the first time since 1964, a
Democratic candidate was expected
to retain a substantial
majority of white voters," Black
said. "The Republicans lost the
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in nation a]
election by losing the South, in
which they'd invested so much for
the last 10 years."
DeVries said the national
Republican party reached a low
point in 1974, "but '76 was lower
still." He said the South, except for
Virginia, voted for a Democratic
president for the first time since
1944.
Bass said out of 12 counties in
aoum Carolina with a majority of
blacks, 65 per cent voted for
Carter; in 34 other counties, the
percentage was 55.5, per cent.
"THERE IS no strong
Republican leadership on the
horizon," DeVries said. State
legislatures will reapportion
Congress in 1980. "They're not
likely to give Republicans any
breaks," he said. There are now
only 12 Republican governors in
the country, and the Democratic
party controls 35 state legislatures,
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he said.
BLACK TURNED the discussion
to patterns of voting in national
elections in the South. He said
mountain areas, especially of
Virginia, Tennessee and North
Carolina, are traditionally
Republican. Bass said, "These
people's ancestors sided with the
Union in the Civil War, and the
GOP is historically strong here."
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the Southern strategy of Goldwater
was that areas that had been
solidly Democratic became almost
solidly Republican.
There was another change in
1968 when George Wallace ran on
an independent party ticket, he
said. Republican counties dwindled,
"and the Democrats were
wiped out in most of their
traditional counties," he said.
Another major change in
Southern politics reduced power in
Congress. In the Senate, only six
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committee chairmen are
Southerners. "This is the fewest of
any Democrat-controlled Senate in *
recent history," Bass said. "Thev
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six, four are at least 72 years old. *
He said the House hasn't fared
much better: last year the South
lost four chairmanships. In postWatergate
1974, Republicans lost
20 per cent of their Congressional
seats and 30 per cent of their seats
in state legislatures.
He displayed a chart showing
party domination or competition in
the South. "In 1945, South Carolina
was 100 per cent Democratic," he
said, adding that moderate oneparty
domination existed in
Virginia, North Carolina and
Tennessee. "The greatest change
from '45 to '63 was in South
Carolina and Tennessee," he said.
The chart, he said, "confirms
our own " subjective feelings of
Republican strength in the South."
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