Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Southern Strategy On Steroids -- Digby
https://digbysblog.net/2026/05/06/southern-strategy-on-steroids-2/
Anyone who's observed the Supreme Court over the past few years knew it was pretty much assured that the conservative majority would gut the Voting Rights Act the first chance they got. But the anticipation made the Court's 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais no less shocking and appalling for having been anticipated.
The conservative justices paved the way for the massive redistricting of Southern states that is already transpiring only days after the ruling. These actions will almost certainly eliminate most of the South's Black representation, leaving those states essentially where they were before the Civil Rights Movement.
. . .
Despite the fact that Donald Trump thinks he invented the phrase "law and order," the truth is that virtually every Republican candidate for president and Congress has used that slogan in the 60 years since -- and everyone has always known exactly what they meant by it. Trump, too, is especially gifted at exploiting the predilection of Republicans to come unraveled at the slightest hint of social change; he creates the chaos himself.
But in another important way Trump's Southern Strategy is even more nefarious and blatant than Nixon's, and it's far older than the one Phillips imagined in the 1960s. The president is reaching back to the really bad old days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries for inspiration. As the Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch observed on May 3, the Justice Department, which has had a tough time prosecuting revenge cases against the president's perceived enemies, has apparently realized that it would have more success bringing them in the solid Southern GOP states.
. . .
The conservative justices paved the way for the massive redistricting of Southern states that is already transpiring only days after the ruling. These actions will almost certainly eliminate most of the South's Black representation, leaving those states essentially where they were before the Civil Rights Movement.
. . .
Despite the fact that Donald Trump thinks he invented the phrase "law and order," the truth is that virtually every Republican candidate for president and Congress has used that slogan in the 60 years since -- and everyone has always known exactly what they meant by it. Trump, too, is especially gifted at exploiting the predilection of Republicans to come unraveled at the slightest hint of social change; he creates the chaos himself.
But in another important way Trump's Southern Strategy is even more nefarious and blatant than Nixon's, and it's far older than the one Phillips imagined in the 1960s. The president is reaching back to the really bad old days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries for inspiration. As the Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch observed on May 3, the Justice Department, which has had a tough time prosecuting revenge cases against the president's perceived enemies, has apparently realized that it would have more success bringing them in the solid Southern GOP states.
. . .