How Southern Governors Can Destroy the Modern GOP

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 banning racial segregation in the U.S. military.  Given the preponderance of military bases in the segregated South, the decision by Truman – an obvious attempt to gain black and leftist voters in Northern states – had broad consequences.  It would effectively pit U.S. military policy against local Jim Crow laws.  Naturally, it was met with immediate resistance by Southern politicians who derived from a region that was the Democratic Party’s most loyal stronghold.  Governors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, led by then-Governor Strom Thurmond, formed the Dixiecrats.  Although not a true third-party, it was an attempt to block out a clear electoral victory from a man, Truman, who betrayed them. 

Other states within the South attempted to force the Dixiecrats to formalize a third-party as a course of election law, thus denying them the machinations necessary to disrupt the election.  In the end, the Dixiecrats won the states that formed the bedrock of the alliance, plus an elector in Tennessee.  However, in 1948, states such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas were fearful of a (Republican) Dewey presidency, and ultimately delivered for Truman.  It is a cautionary and yet inspiring tale.  It lays out a framework by which Southern governors can finally reshape a political party in their own image and forever destroy the “Party of Lincoln.”  This article explains “why” and “how.”

Two days prior to the midterm elections of 2022, Yankee businessman and former president, Donald Trump, decided to attack the most successful governor in these United States, let alone the South.  Calling Ron DeSantis “DeSanctimonious” was a typical Trump-esque attempt to label his opposition.  But the timing was gratuitous at best.  First, it was two days before a major election.  Second, DeSantis was neither running for president, nor stated he would do so.  DeSantis would go on to win by nearly twenty percentage points in his respective election.  Trump’s response?  Attack DeSantis repeatedly since DeSantis won his election.

Meanwhile in Georgia, Governor Kemp had taken Trump directly on and beat him twice.  First, Georgia conservatives nominated Kemp over Trump’s hand-picked gubernatorial candidate, former Senator David Perdue.  Next, he went on to comfortably defeat Stacey Abrams without Trump’s assistance.  In fact, Trump’s chosen Senate candidate, Herschel Walker, is now stuck in a run-off race with the unpopular Senator Raphael Warnock.  Whereas Kemp got 53% of the vote, Walker received about 48.5%.  Georgians have heretofore ignored Donald Trump.

In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin, who won his election last year by distancing himself from Trump, continues to surprise members of the political Right with carefully calculated culture war victories.  He effectively reversed nearly a decade of Critical Race Theory indoctrination in schools and has dismantled transgender ideology that Trump ignored as president.  Trump decided to posit the silly idea that Youngkin is Asian (he is Anglo and Irish) in a pathetic attempt to slander the increasingly popular, native Virginian.

Trump’s attempts to besmirch and destroy Southern governors is assisted by the typical sycophants of the “America First” variety.  Vince James, a California-transplant to Idaho, has openly lied about DeSantis to assist Trump.  Specifically, James disingenuously shared an article from 2019 that implied that DeSantis removed Confederate monuments (he did not).  This was an attempt by the Californian to peel away Southern support for DeSantis.  Delaware native Lauren Witzke claimed that the Lincoln Project, a group of Far Left “Republicans,” endorsed DeSantis. Somehow, Witzke completely forgot that the Lincoln Project has attacked DeSantis repeatedly and funded his challenger, Charlie Crist’s campaign.  Their video was an obvious attempt to cause friction within the populist sector of the GOP and she fell for it.  Mexican-Yankee, Nick Fuentes, meanwhile, claimed on Telegram that he was “standing by for his leader” (Trump) to attack DeSantis.     

For Southern Nationalists paying attention, their attacks are an interesting reflection of an all too familiar theme within the Dissident Right.  The broader White Nationalist vs Southern Nationalist argument in American dissident discourse.  Yankee White Nationalists are constantly telling Southerners to follow them… follow their lead… follow their leaders.  When Southern Nationalists go their own way, even respectfully explaining that they will be allies, but not subordinate, the usual tactic of Yankee White Nationalists is to attack and destroy Southern Nationalists.  They attempted this with Identity Dixie in 2019.  Even the League of the South has experienced broader White Nationalist attacks against their stated position of a Free and Independent Dixie.

The populist Right of the GOP is doing the same thing.  They are clearly telling Southerners what to do.  Follow Yankee Donald Trump or we will force you to follow Yankee rule.  It is time to break them.

Beginning in 1964, the South has increasingly become the only reliable GOP voter base.  Yet, the Republican Party has done almost nothing for the South.  It has ignored its religious and cultural norms.  It has allowed Washington bureaucracies to shame Southerners with the removal of monuments and icons to her people.  It has treated Dixie’s native sons as janissaries for globalist wars.  Even the GOP leadership lacks Southern representation.  The last several leaders of the Republican House have been from Ohio, Wisconsin, and now California.

It is time to break the GOP and, if we are stuck in this despicable union, at least let us get true representation.  That has to begin with killing the Trump candidacy of 2024.  As long as that character sucks the air out of the room, Southern interests will remain subordinate.  That has to change.

Before I break down how that can happen, I want to state that I had no particular ill-will toward Trump.  As president, I liked what he achieved economically and as it pertained to illegal immigration.  But his glaring failures were obvious.  Worse, I did not elect a man to tell me about black unemployment, save A$AP Rocky, or release black drug dealers from prison at the insistence of Kim Kardashian.  I love that Trump enrages the Left.  However, when Trump attacked my governor, and other Southern governors, it became clear that he has to go.  Trump’s attacks are not the fair-game of 2016 primary politics, such as attacking wimpy Ted Cruz or neocon “Little Marco” Rubio.  These are direct hits on effective Southern leaders.  His little band of Yankee loyalists amplifying his message should get the boot, too.

Returning to how Southern leaders can get rid of Trump, the answer is simple: form a Southern bloc – choosing one candidate to nominate in the primary – and deny Trump the machines that answer to them within their home states.  If Kemp, Abbott, Youngkin, Ivey, Lee, and McMaster galvanized around DeSantis – or some other candidate, with DeSantis in support – Trump cannot win the primary.  If you deny Trump the primary in the South, you deny Trump the nomination.  In essence, this is the 1948 Dixiecrat strategy, but at an election point that matters – the primary – not the general election. 

While many will state that Trump would go on to form a third party, I am skeptical of that threat for two reasons.  First, Trump hates the minutiae of campaigning, a topic I have covered before.  The reason his candidates lose has nothing to do with messaging.  It has everything to do with the fact that Trump has never built the operational machine necessary to get out the vote.  He relies on Republican elected leaders to do the grunt work for him.  Second, third parties are rarely successful, but when they are formed, they almost always hurt the incumbent.  The Dixiecrat loss of 1948 was barely a failure in this regard.  In 1968, Wallace and Humphrey ensured the Democrats were kicked out of office.  In 1980, Anderson ensured the removal of Carter.  In 1992, Ross Perot helped defeat George H. Bush.  Republicans reward loyalty and they have long memories.  If Trump pulls a John Kasich or even Ted Cruz style convention move, Republicans will not forgive Trump.

In a perfect world, Southern governors would meet to discuss secession.  We do not live in a perfect world.  We live in a hellish dystopia called these United States.  This is our chance – the South’s chance – to at least make things a little brighter as we prepare for an eventual balkanization.  It is time to smack down Yankee domination over a political party to which the South has been the most loyal.  It is time for us to lift one of our own above them.  Coalesce around the strongest candidate, give unwavering support, align your political machines to work on his behalf, and win the nomination.