http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/06/22/3672313/racial-dog-whistles-confederate-flag-long-shadow-gops-southern-strategy/
"The Republicans hesitancy on the issue is a missed opportunity to distance themselves from the ‘Southern Strategy,’ which then-RNC chairman Ken Mehlman apologized for in 2005. The Republican Party, according to Mehlman, historically tried to “benefit politically from racial polarization.” Lee Atwater, one of the architects of the strategy, explained how the strategy worked and could be adapted to the times.
You start in 1954 by saying ‘N*****, n*****, n*****.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘N*****.’ That hurts you. It backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states rights and all that stuff and you get so abstract. Now you talk about cutting taxes and these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that’s part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract and that coded, we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. Obviously sitting around saying we want to cut taxes and we want this, is a lot more abstract than even the busing thing and a hell of a lot more abstract than n***** n*****. So anyway you look at it, race is coming on the back burner.
The ‘Southern Strategy’ is almost certainly a losing strategy in a modern American general election, due to demographic changes and shifting attitudes about race."
