Republican George Wallace?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

George Wallace, a Republican???  Not a chance, bud.  Republicans were so much stronger on civil rights that it would have made absolutely no sense at all for Wallace to do that.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

The GOP leadership would have never accepted him either.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Wallace frequently said there wasn't "a dime's difference" between the two parties on civil rights, so I don't see why he would do that.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Read my previous posts: there is no way he would have ever become a Republican.  Also, the Republican shift in the South had very little, if anything, to do with race.  Ike carried several Southern states in 1952 and 1956 and Nixon did the same in 1960, despite both being strong supporters of civil rights and the Democrats putting racists and segregationists on their tickets all three times.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I REALLY don't think George Wallace would've become a Republican, but not for the reasons that OldiesFreak mentioned.

For one, George Wallace was a very populist politician.  Not only would his pro-segregation stance be at odds with the Republican Party (actually, it would've been at odds with the majority of the Democratic Party as well, as the numbers indicate on the vote by party on the Civil Rights Act.), but so would his economic philosophy.  Republicans, while not outright laissez faire in the 1960's, were at least considerably more pro-business in rhetoric than what Wallace would've felt comfortable with.  At least as a Democrat he would retain his populist visage by sticking with the "little guy's party", something that he wouldn't have as a Southern Republican (who were mostly seen as rich oilmen at the time).

Agreed.  Although most Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they did so in smaller percentages than the Republicans did.