Challenging the notion that Mississippi was always right wing

[buritobr]

This question is inspired in the thread about Vermont.

Mississippi may be the opposite extreme of Vermont.
According to opinion polls, Mississippi has a very large share of conservative voters. But in the past, the Democrats dominated the election for president, house, senate and governor. One can argue that local Democrats in Mississippi were conservative, that the democrats in the 19th century were conservative.
But FDR, Stevenson and Carter won in Mississippi.

Was Mississippi always right wing or not?

[Flake]

Yes

[ElectionsGuy]

It was always been a conservative state with a conservative culture, like much of the south. Don't really know enough to say right wing though. The south voting overwhelmingly Democratic was more of an anti-Republican thing for a long time. The real elections in the south were the primaries. Even in the progressive era, the southern dems were probably the most conservative in the party, even if there were more conservative R's, but I can't say anything for sure. Southerners kept voting Democratic even when the party turned leftward. It was not until the push for Civil Rights when it became clear states like Mississippi had different interests than the national party. And even with that, it took decades for southern dems to bounce out of power, as at the congressional and state levels, they remained close with the state. It has not been until pretty recently that the deep south has shunned the Democratic party out of power.

[bobloblaw]

It voted or FDR 4 times. Vermont never did

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

What do you mean by "right-wing"?

[Rockefeller GOP]

It is disturbingly apparent that almost everyone on this forum is under 30.  Yes, the South has always been CULTURALLY conservative, but that implies nothing about its social (which really is only a term applicable to post-Roe v. Wade America) or its fiscal views.  This idea that the old Southern Democrats simply switched party labels and are the political ancestors of modern Republicans is frankly ridiculous and was never really suggested until about 15 years ago.

MS supported progressive economics for a VERY long time.  Both parties were socially conservative in the South during the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, so what do you think the Democrats and Republicans used to differentiate themselves in local elections?  Fiscal "conservatism" has been a tenant of the GOP since its inception, and the fact is that it took quite a while for MS and the rest of the Deep South to warm up to the idea.

So no, MS was not always right-wing.  Period.  Racist =/= conservative.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

MS, whether right or left by modern standards, had very little reason to vote Republican when it came to economics.  Republicans were for nearly a hundred years the party of tariffs, which were seen as detrimental to the Southern economy.  There was also a lot of support for Free Silver for a time, often without the other things Free Silver-ites tended to support in the North such as labor unions.  Add to that the fact that the South was able to gain a great deal of influence over the Democratic party in Congress, which meant that they tended to be able to win some influence with Democratic presidents as well.

[Mr. Illini]

Certainly it has always been culturally and socially right-wing. Fiscal issues are much more complicated and you cannot make a general statement regarding them.

[NerdyBohemian]

This question is inspired in the thread about Vermont.

Mississippi may be the opposite extreme of Vermont.
According to opinion polls, Mississippi has a very large share of conservative voters. But in the past, the Democrats dominated the election for president, house, senate and governor. One can argue that local Democrats in Mississippi were conservative, that the democrats in the 19th century were conservative.
But FDR, Stevenson and Carter won in Mississippi.

Was Mississippi always right wing or not?

Ah yes, the simplisitic and untrue "the parties switched places" line.

Democratic =/= liberal all the time
Republican =/= conservative all the time

It is also possible to hold a mix of liberal and conservative views on both social issues, economic issues, and foreign policy.

The South voted for FDR and Stevenson because of ancestral partisan politics dating back to the Civil War, as well as FDR's relief and development programs during the Great Depression (they still hated black people though). Carter won it as a one-time thing in 1976, as a combination of the last revival of the bi-polar New Deal coalition, regional loyalty, and dissatisfaction with the Republicans over Watergate.

I'm a very liberal history teacher in a public school and I absolutely detest the "parties switched places" line. The reality is much more complicated. I think some of it comes from guilt over the racist policies of the southern Democrats.

[H. Ross Peron]

Probably in the Jacksonian era, but certainly not since then.

[All Along The Watchtower]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_G._Bilbo

[buritobr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_G._Bilbo

In his picture in Wikipedia page, we can see that he is wearing the ring. His hand is very highlighted in the picture.

[All Along The Watchtower]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_G._Bilbo

From wikipedia:

In his first term, his Progressive program was largely implemented. He was known as "Bilbo the Builder" because of his authorization of a state highway system, as well as lime-crushing plants, new dormitories at the Old Soldiers' Home, and a tuberculosis hospital. He pushed through a law eliminating public hangings and worked on eradication of the South American tick. The state constitution prohibited governors from having successive terms.

"In Washington, Bilbo feuded with Mississippi senior Senator Pat Harrison. Bilbo, whose base was among tenant farmers, hated the upper-class Harrison, who represented the rich planters and merchants. The feud started in 1936 when Harrison nominated Judge Holmes for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bilbo disliked Holmes, dating back to the Russell case, and spoke against him for five hours. Bilbo was the only Senator to vote "no," and Holmes was confirmed."

RIGHT WING POOR HATING EXTREMIST BILBO! OMG OMG OMG@!

Do you even read your own links?

Where did I say he was a right-winger? Although you left out the parts about Bilbo being a virulent racist and white supremacist. Basically a white populist who supported left-wing policies that would benefit poor white people.

My point with posting that link was that our modern conceptions of the political spectrum do not neatly line up with the past. Consider the fact that poor, working-class, and Southern whites overwhelmingly voted for FDR-along with African-Americans in the Northern industrial cities and Latinos in the Southwest (despite working-class whites being the primary beneficiaries of the New Deal). That kind of coalition simply doesn't exist anymore, certainly not nearly to the extent it did in the 1930s and 1940s.