How Democrats and Republicans Switched

In 1948 the Democratic Party made the critical move of adopting Civil Rights as part of its national platform. This began the migration of the African American voter to the Democratic Party. By the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act (1965) 90% of the African American Vote was with the Democratic Party. Disenfranchised racist Democrats in the South formed a strong opposing faction within the Party, called Dixiecrats. In the 1960's Republicans began to appeal for these "Conservative" voters among Democratic party dissenters to bolster their own Party - by taking sides with them in opposition to social programs seen as disproportionately benefiting African Americans, they cut their losses with black voters, and secured a large chunk of the South. Called "The Southern Strategy". During the Regan era these Dixiecrats migrated to the Republican party. The Republicans made a similar play for the Christian vote by adopting pro-life, and traditional marriage platforms. It served them well when it cost them little socially. As social pressure mounts and it begins to cost them votes, I predict they will dump these issues and go after a larger segment of the voting population. As Christians, we must remember, they were never our allies - we were used, we were promised that politics would secure us the victory in a culture war. We lost because we used the wrong weapons.