It is Time to Demythologize Goldwater by Telling the Truth, Goldwater was a Racist

"You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger. By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like States' Rights," — Lee Atwater.

"Gordon, There you Go Again."

During the first part of the Carter-Reagan debate, the issues of Iran, the hostages, and terrorism were discussed. This was followed by a second round in which arms control, the energy problem, and social security were covered. At the point Jimmy Carter began to attack Reagan on his record concerning Medicare. Reagan responded to Carter, screwed himself up to his full height, looked at the president of the United States and said, shaking his head, "There you go again." Ronald Reagan corrected the president of the United States as if he were a fresh-faced stumbling school boy.

States' Rights is a euphemism or doublespeak accepted as code to achieve something on a state level which can not be accomplished on a federal level. "States' Rights" is a naked exposed play against Civil Rights laws.

States' Rights superficially took on the patina of a broader meaning than simply a reference to Civil Rights laws, eventually encompassing federalism as the means to forestall Federal intervention in the culture wars.

Lee Atwater discusses politics in the South:

Lee Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, States' Rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now that you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is that Blacks get hurt worse than whites.

And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me -- because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, Arizona News) November 3, 2006 — Arizona State University is working on a plan that would preserve and showcase Goldwater and his papers in a multistory library and archival building bearing his name. The new library would be located in downtown Phoenix.

A major fund-raising campaign will be launched after Jan. 1, with the goal of raising $20 million to $30 million to construct the building near ASU's downtown Phoenix campus.

"Having this downtown would be a tremendous coup for the city of Phoenix," Mayor Phil Gordon said. "Certainly, a building like this, named after one of our greatest senators, would be an amazing thing."

It would also be racist.

In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the focus of the Republican party on winning U.S. Presidential elections by securing the electoral votes of the U.S. Southern states.

The phrase, Southern strategy, was coined by Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips. For the years 1948 - 1984, the southern states, traditionally a stronghold for the Democratic Party became key swing states, providing the popular vote margins in the Presidential elections 1960, 1968 and 1976. During this era, several Republican candidates expressed support for States' Rights, which American Blacks have argued was intended as a signal of opposition to federal Civil Rights legislation for Blacks.

States' Rights is a euphemism or doublespeak accepted as anti Civil Rights code to achieve stopping Civil Rights on a state level which could not be accomplished on a federal level.

It was not until 1928 that the situation changed. In that year, Republican candidate Herbert Hoover rode the issues of prohibition and anti-Catholicism to carry five former Confederate states, with 62 of the 126 electoral votes of the section. After his monumental victory, Hoover attempted to build up the Republican Party of the South, transferring patronage away from Blacks and toward the same kind of white Protestant businessmen who made up the core of the Northern Republican Party.

In 1948, a group of Democratic congressmen, led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, founded the States Rights Democratic or Dixiecrat Party, which ran Thurmond as its presidential candidate. This was a split from the Democrats in reaction to an anti-segregation speech given by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota,

In addition to the splits in the Democratic Party, the population movements of World War II had a significant effect on the makeup of the South. The addition of many Northern transplants significantly bolstered the base of the Republican Party in the South.

Many States' Rights Democrats were attracted to the 1964 presidential campaign of Goldwater who was notably more conservative than previous Republican nominees, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Goldwater's principle opponent in the primary election, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was widely seen as representing the more moderate and pro-Civil Rights Northern wing of the party. Rockefeller's defeat in the primary is seen as one turning point towards a more conservative Republican party and the beginning of a long decline for moderate and especially liberal Republicans. Goldwater's primary victory is also seen as a shift of the center of Republican power to the West and South.

In the 1964 presidential race, Barry Goldwater ran a very conservative campaign, primarily with an emphasis on "States' Rights." As a conservative, Goldwater broadly opposed strong action by the federal government. Goldwater favored the Rights of the states. Namely because a defeat of Civil Rights could not be won on a national level leaving the only alternative — winning in a few individual states where anti Black sentiments prevailed. States' Rights was thus born as a label and movement to defeat giving Civil Rights to Blacks.

Goldwater oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His stance based on his view of States' Rights has been interpreted as an appeal to racist white Southern Democrats, and undoubtedly attracted a few conservative anti Civil Rights bases.

Fortunately, Goldwater's voting "nay" on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 proved devastating to Goldwater's campaign, contributing to his landslide defeat in 1964. One Johnson ad, "Confessions of a Republican" ran in the North, and associated Goldwater with the Ku Klux Klan.

The labeling of Goldwater as one and the same mentality as the KKK was an accurate portrayal.

At the same time, Johnson's campaign in the Deep South publicized Goldwater's full history on Civil Rights. In the end, Johnson swept the election, including a significant majority in the South. However, besides the home state of Arizona, Goldwater managed to pick off five deep South states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, because of Goldwater's anti-Civil Rights position.

Roots of the Southern Strategy

Nixon, with the aid of Harry Dent and then South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who had switched to the Republican party in 1964, ran on a campaign of States' Rights and "law and order." Many liberals accused Nixon of pandering to racist Southern whites, especially with regards to his "States' Rights" and "law and order" stands.

As a result, every state that had been in the Confederacy, except Texas, voted for either Nixon or George Wallace, a Southern Democrat running as an independent, despite a strong tradition of supporting Democrats. Meanwhile, Nixon parlayed a wide perception as a moderate into wins in other states, taking a solid majority in the electoral college.

Nixon was able to appear this way to most Americans, because the strategy often consisted of code words that meant nothing to most Americans, but were emotionally charged for those in the south.

Evolution of the Southern Strategy

Modern Appraisal in the Republican Party

Goldwater's politics began in Phoenix as a city councilman. Goldwater's politics of States' Rights to oppose Civil Rights began to take bloom in downtown Phoenix. Building a 100,000 square foot monument in downtown Phoenix would be an affront to the Phoenix African American community. It is an outrage Black American leaders should have to suffer once again over States' Rights, code for nigger, nigger, nigger.

The best thing that ever happened to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s is Barry Goldwater lost his bid to become president of the United States by a landslide.

If Goldwater had won, the United States would not have Civil Rights and equal justice for all. Blacks would still be riding in the back of City of Phoenix buses and forced to use their own restrooms. The Orpheum and Herberger Theatres, Chase Field, and US Airways Center would all have two entrances. Front grand entrances for whites. Back dark small doors for Blacks to use.

This would have been the world of Barry Goldwater if he had not been stopped and now Gordon wants to build a monument in downtown Phoenix to honor this anti Civil Rights villain.

To those that support building this monument to a anti Civil Rights racist, align themselves with Goldwater's philosophy on States' Rights over Civil Rights. Endorsing and promoting Goldwater's legacy exposes one's true colors and lacks empathy for African Americans.

The Goldwater Library would be no different than having the KKK burn a cross on Patriots Square Park. Shame on you, Gordon, for even considering a Goldwater monument.

James Sensenbrenner energized the Hispanic marches this year with one word — felon.