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Originally posted by MJZiggy
In the period following the Civil War the Radical Republicans used the Union Army to occupy and forcibly reengineer Southern society. When conservative white Southerners ended military occupation and restored the Southern politico-economic position, the region gave its political allegiance almost entirely to the Democratic Party, creating the solidly Democratic South.
In the 1930s, when the Democratic Party began its drift toward more centralized socialized engineering, the Southern Democrats remained an anchor toward traditional Democratic policies of localized populism and progressivism. After the crisis of the Great Depression, World War Two, and the beginning of the Cold War, the National Democratic Leadership fully embraced a more centralized, socialized, secularized, and multicultural program. This was seen as a return to Reconstruction and many Southern Democrats began to drift from the National Party. As a result they became termed Dixiecrats.
The term Dixiecrat is a portmanteau of Dixie, referring to the Southern United States, and Democrat, referring to the United States Democratic Party. Initially, it referred to a splinter (or offshoot) from the party in the 1948 U.S. presidential election. For more than a century, white Southerners had overwhelmingly been Democrats.
In the 1930s, when the Democratic Party began its drift toward more centralized socialized engineering, the Southern Democrats remained an anchor toward traditional Democratic policies of localized populism and progressivism. After the crisis of the Great Depression, World War Two, and the beginning of the Cold War, the National Democratic Leadership fully embraced a more centralized, socialized, secularized, and multicultural program. This was seen as a return to Reconstruction and many Southern Democrats began to drift from the National Party. As a result they became termed Dixiecrats.
The term Dixiecrat is a portmanteau of Dixie, referring to the Southern United States, and Democrat, referring to the United States Democratic Party. Initially, it referred to a splinter (or offshoot) from the party in the 1948 U.S. presidential election. For more than a century, white Southerners had overwhelmingly been Democrats.
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