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About 50 years ago, the Republican party made a conscious decision to become the party of white men. It was a smart strategic move that ushered in an era of neoliberalism and GOP dominance throughout the final decades of the 20th century, though it has always been an odd alliance between poor and working class white Southerners and wealthy business and financial elites. This alliance, widely known as the “Southern Strategy,” has remained generally stable for nearly half a century, but today, the cracks are starting to widen, and it is seemingly falling apart. As William Greider pointed out in The Nation earlier this week:
“The party establishment, including business and financial leaders, seems to realize that Republicans need to moderate their outdated posture on social issues. But they can’t persuade their own base—especially Republicans in the white South—to change. The longer the GOP holds out, the more likely it is to be damaged by the nation’s changing demographics—the swelling impact of Latinos and other immigrants, and the flowering influence of millennials, the 18-to-30-year-olds who are more liberal and tolerant than their elders.”
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