The southern strategy was also kind of the major tactic the Democratic Party used to maintain the New Deal coalition. It essentially meant ignoring southern racism in favor of major infrastructure. Southern states just fucked over infrastructure projects where it served black people. It fell apart when, in the 1950s, the Democratic Party began to pursue racial rights.
*edit
But it was Nixon and the GOP that coined it as a term I believe. It’s a long standing strategy in American politics, though.
To oversimplify, the parties “switched” platforms in the 60s when Republicans realized that they could appeal to uneducated, racist white people.
The southern strategy was also kind of the major tactic the Democratic Party used to maintain the New Deal coalition. It essentially meant ignoring southern racism in favor of major infrastructure. Southern states just fucked over infrastructure projects where it served black people. It fell apart when, in the 1950s, the Democratic Party began to pursue racial rights.
*edit But it was Nixon and the GOP that coined it as a term I believe. It’s a long standing strategy in American politics, though.