What Made Conservative Southern Democrats Become Republicans?

Conservative Southern Democrats resided in Americas deep South during the 18th and 19th century. This party was pro-slavery and opposed the anti-slavery views of the Republican and Northern Democratic parties. 

The mission of the Conservative Southern Democrats was to dismantle the Republican agenda that supported the freeing of slaves, in which they wanted to coerce Northern Democrats and White Southerners, to not work hand in hand with the freed labor. 

The Republican party pressed for national civil rights, political rights, and equal protection under the laws for newly freed slaves; laws of the 13th amendment, the 14th amendment, and the 15th amendment.

During the Reconstruction Era, which was put in place by Washington Northern Republicans to reconstruct the Southern states and society as a whole; many educated blacks returned to the South for Reconstruction and even held positions of political power. 

White Southerners however detested this new way of life and decided to take power into their own hands, which gave way to the rise of secret white supremacy groups such as the White League, the Red Shirts, and the Ku Klux Klan (seen above). These vigilante groups wanted the South to totally secede from Northern America as a whole.

Slavery was abolished in 1865 after the Civil War took place, and by the early 1870's the Ku Klux Klan (who often uses religious views to justify their violent actions) intimidated, terrorized, and even assassinated Republicans, Yankees (Northern liberals), and freed slaves in order to suppress the vote. 

This violence spread throughout the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina, with Conservative Southern Democrats fiercely trying to regain what they felt Washington took away from them -- their livelihood. 

President Abraham Lincoln who originally abolished slavery and set-out to give all freed slaves their own land as an investment opportunity, was met with death threats until his assassination on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.

During the Presidential election of 1876 Samuel J. Tilden, Democratic Governor of New York, was basically ousted out of the election due to a corrupt bargain that Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican Governor of Ohio, was willing to accept. 

Reportedly, Hayes garnered enough votes to become the new president but he would only receive those votes, if he agreed to remove all federal troops from the remaining Southern states that were still held under power by Washington; Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. 

These states were important to Conservative Southern Democrats, because it would allow them to exercise their fear tactics on civilians in order to reclaim the South. 

Radical Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, won the presidency by exerting corrupt actions on behalf of the Conservative Southern Democrats, and the Reconstruction Era came to an abrupt end with the Ku Klux Klan members burning down black owned businesses, black owned homes, and disrupting what blacks thought was the new beginning of freedom. Southern whites succeeded in winning their bout in making black people second class citizens once again.

The more political officials in Washington were willing to work with Conservative Southern Democrats, the more radical Congress grew until extreme radicals began to attain more power and control over certain states and policies. 

So we have Conservative Southern Democrats who considered themselves 'The Ruling Elite', Northern Democrats who were more liberal, radical Republicans who considered themselves 'Men of free enterprise and industrialization', and liberal Republicans who also believed in free enterprise -- but was staunchly opposed to governmental corruption. 

The last Democratic president to ever attain 100 percent of the white vote was, Lyndon B. Johnson. After President Johnson worked with Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed most forms of racial segregation, the Conservative Southern Democrats left the Democratic party and moved over to the radical Republican party. 

President Johnson achieved what President John F. Kennedy tried to carry out during his presidency, which was to pass the Civil Rights Act. Unfortunately, President Kennedy was assassinated before the Civil Rights bill made it through passage. 

President Johnson also passed the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in voting. After Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he anticipated violent attacks from the radical right would ensue. He was right; and after the murder took place of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, Johnson announced on television the arrests of four Ku Klux Klansmen who carried out the crime.  

He denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots" and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's to late."

Radical Republican President Richard Nixon secured the presidency after Lyndon B. Johnson; then came Democratic President Jimmy Carter who was succeeded by Republican President Ronald Reagan; then came Republican President George H.W. Bush who was succeeded by Democratic President William Clinton; then came George W. Bush who catapulted America into a second great depression and who was succeeded by our nation's first black President, Barack Hussein Obama.

In 2012 the Democratic party is geared towards 100 percent of Americans, the Republican party is geared towards the wealthiest 2% of Americans, and the Independent party is more in line with democratic values. (click chart above to see current 2012 wealth gap)

Over the decades the tug of war battle for money and power between the parties have resulted in tremendous prosperity for 2 percent of Americans, which now leaves a huge wealth gap between the middle class, the poor, and the uber rich. 

The middle class and the poor are currently fighting for equality, human rights, and civil rights all over again.  

Radical Republicans seem to have a history of using brutal force and cruel actions to get what they want from The White House, and after amassing so much wealth and power over the previous decades; the use of bullying tactics to control the American people is nothing short of Southern politics. 

Is this why our current president has been disrespected more than any president in presidential history? Is this why Attorney General Holder, is being held in contempt by Republicans because he's protecting the American vote? And is this why the war on women's reproductive rights and the war on the poor, is being exercised at such an extreme measure? 

It would indeed appear that all of this is being carried out by the radical right wing, as an outrageous attempt to stop the reelection of President Obama. 

Fact: The term liberal came from supporters of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'New Deal', which under his administration tripled the number of African Americans working for the federal government. In 2012, Liberals are now considered Democrats.

Fact: The term conservative came from those opposed to President Roosevelt's 'New Deal', which were primarily Conservative Southern Democrats that are now in 2012, considered Republicans.

For more information on FDR's 'New Deal' click here.  

2012 LA