It doesn't make sense to me. This lie comes up about the parties switching philosophies because the Democrats reach and reach again when trying to correlate or give a reason that is false and not even thought through. Why did Southern Democrats switch to the republican party? Senator Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina was probably the most conservative senator in the 1960s. I was pointing out to the guy (he's a huge Dinesh D'souza fan), how most Southern Democrats 50 years ago were a lot different than Democrats today. The republican party is the one who freed the slaves. I heard a bizarre explanation a couple of days ago about how Southern Democrats switched to Republican. Here's why that's false: The ideological alignment of the parties was set in the early 20th century. They were against freeing the slaves so much that the civil war arose. And that’s where the Republican Party (specifically Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater) stepped in with what they called their “Southern strategy.” Because the Republicans were against the liberalism of the Northern Democrats, they decided to court the Southern Democrats that were also against the rise of civil rights and bring them over to their side. They usually say – the racist Dixiecrats left the Democratic party for the Republican Party, but they can never give more than one name – Strom Thurman! And why do Conservatives on Yahoo deny that this mass exodus from the Democratic to the Republican Party ever happened, along with the mass … He was a segregationist who opposed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. It is often repeated on Reddit that "Republicans and Democrats switched sides due to Richard Nixon and the Southern Strategy. Why would they feel betrayed by the democrats and switch to the party they were against? Senator Strom Thurmond switched to the Republican Party in 1964 to support the Goldwater candidacy.

What event took place in 1964 that caused Thurmond, and so many other Conservative Southern Democrats to permanently switch to the Republican Party and throw their support behind Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater? When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the “Southern Bloc” of 18 southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage.