• banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Until the late 50s Democrats were the safe segregation vote, Brown v Brown in 54 got them some extreme segregationist populists even while the party overall was accommodating the demographic shifts that came with industrialization in the cities. Republicans successfully courted younger voters, and as deindustrialization hit the rural areas and created an economic glut, failure to invest in stimulus for these areas through successive administrations created a population angry at government for legitimate reasons ready to be courted by appealing and directing their base anxieties towards an internal “other.”

    It’s only been since the 90s that the parties reached the internal consensus they’re known for now. When Biden speaks about compromising and working “across the aisle” he’s often referencing by name segregationist Democrats. The parties as single ideological units who consent to the same economic arrangement is very recent and creating this post-political stagnation where people have no political agency and are merely reacting to politics happening along ideological lines.

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think you’re way late re: internal consensus. FDR set the model for democrats. It was apparent thereafter in every presidential election. Kennedy and Nixon, for example. The Dixiecrats dissolved in 1948.

      • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There were still staunch Democrat segregationsts well into the early 70s, famously Wallace and Maddox. Wallace was Alabama governor until '68 and Maddox Georgia governor until '71.

        • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, I suppose. Hard to believe him and RFK were in the same party. I guess I haven’t thought much about what that means, if anything. At any rate, the path to change the DNC is from within, as Bernie did.

          • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Look into redline mortgage laws and issues around housing developments in northern cities from the 60s to 90s. This was how racial division was perpetuated by northern white middle class liberals who became the consistent base for Democrats into the present day. Issues around property relations and the notion of the “neighborhood” which developers and mortgage brokers used to ensure blacks were segregated to low income areas. Even though a lot has been done to address these issues they’re still very relevant to the generational wealth and have impacted a lot of issues around racism and the sort of programs the government has introduced to address it.

            Some pop culture depictions of this… the HBO series “Show Me A Hero” with Oscar Isaac playing Yonkers mayor Nick Wasicsko, as his white middle class constituents fought against public housing developments. The Randy Newman song Rednecks is an infamous and shocking satire of the same issue written from the perspective of a (very) openly racist southerner.

            Also can’t recommend Barbara and Karen Fields’ book “Racecraft” enough. Completely dissects what race is in America and how this notion of race came to be. A lot of well read people on the subject have praised it for completely changing their perspective on race. It’s also completely readable and doesn’t talk down to the reader or any of that bs (cough D’Angelo cough).