For those who miss any of the in-class lecture experience:
Remember, all of the class lectures from which the essay exams are drawn from are on my website on the world wide web.
August 21, 2024. We talked about current events and the subjects that we will cover in this class. Friday we start with class lectures.
August 23, 2024. Today we covered the early parts of Weeks 1-2 of the notes, specifically the difference between Deep South and Rim South states, and between Growth and Stagnant states. We also talked about the first two party systems, focusing on Jefferson and Jackson. We ended by talking about the Democratic Party's old Jefferson-Jackson day dinners.
August 26, 2024. We talked about current events, and then reviewed the history of the South in the two party system from 1860 thru 1932. We then started the important topic of the South in the modern presidential election period. We discussed the first two periods: 1932-1944, when the national Democratic Party took the liberal position only on domestic economic issues, which were FDR's New Deal; 1948, when the national Democrats supported a racial, civil rights plank in their national party platform.
August 28, 2024. I gave a handout on presidential elections in the South. We reviewed the first two periods: 1932-1944, FDR, Democratic liberal economic programs sweep the South; 1948 Truman's civil rights support loses the Deep South to States' Rights candidate Strom Thurmond. We then covered the next 3 periods: 1952-1960, moderate conservative Republicans Eisenhower and Nixon win some Rim South states; 1964 Republican Goldwater wins the Deep South; 1968 Democrats lose the entire South except for Texas, as Wallace wins the Deep South and Nixon wins the Rim South, generally.
August 30, 2024. We reviewed the previous eras of presidential politics in the South, focusing on the sub-regional differences from 1932 thru 1968. The more segregationist Deep South defected from the national Democrats in 1948 and 1968 to back third party candidates States' Rights Strom Thurmond in 1948 and Alabama segregationist George Wallace in 1968, and conservative Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964. The moderate conservative Rim South partly went for moderate conservatives Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Nixon in 1960 and 1968. By 1972 such sub-regional splits were no longer evident, as the right-of-center region backed Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and Bush1 in 1988; the left-wing ideologue Democrat McGovern in 1972 also helped Nixon in the South and nation, as did dissatisfaction in 1980 which helped Reagan, with peace and prosperity helping Reagan in 1984, and Dukakis' left-wing ideology helping Bush1 in 1988. The South went Democratic in 1976, however, as Carter's honesty, decency, born again Baptist, former Georgia governor traits helped him, as did the 90% of African Americans who had been Democrats since Goldwater's campaign.
September 4, 2024. We talked about the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections, when Democrat Clinton's centrist views and his being governor of Arkansas with a Vice Presidential running mate from Tennessee won him 4 southern states plus the presidency, though Republican Bush and Dole's more moderate conservative views won them most of the South. Bush2 swept the South in 2000 and 2004, as he was a compassionate conservative and a terrorist fighter, and Democrats Gore and Kerry were pretty liberal candidates. We also talked about the 1994 midterm elections, when for the first time a majority of Southern U.S. House and Senate members were Republican, helping the GOP gain control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years; Mississippi's own Haley Barbour was RNC Chair at the time.
September 6, 2024. We talked about the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, when moderate conservative Republicans McCain and Romney carried most of the southern states, but lost the presidential election to Democrat Obama. Obama was able to carry two or three southern states in each election, even though he was not a southerner (like Carter and Clinton), as some southern states were becoming competitive and voters liked his positive personal characteristics. Trump as a moderate conservative also carried most of the South, but he lost one state in 2016 and two states in 2020. We talked about Trump extensively.
September 9, 2024. We talked about the first 4 ways that white Mississippians upheld a white-ruled segregationist system: the Mississippi Plan; the 1890 state constitution and its discriminatory voting devices; violence and intimidation; public officials using racist rhetoric.
September 11, 2024. We spent the entire class talking about the presidential debate last night. Students had excellent comments and questions about the candidates and the debate, and Shaffer provided his insights into it.
September 13, 2024. We covered the last 8 ways that white Mississippians upheld segregation: the White Primary; the Dixiecrat Party; early 1960s state legislature's good moral character voting requirement, plus requiring newspapers to publish the names of new voters; the all white regular Democrats being challenged by the Freedom Democrats at the 1964 national Democratic convention, and then unseated by the Loyalists the next two conventions; the state legislature in the 1960s redrawing U.S. House district lines so that all districts were majority white; using multi-member districts so that all state legislative districts were white majorities; the average white voter was racially conservative, and all three governors of the 1960s were segregationists or racially conservative; the state had all white boards and commissions, such as IHL, until the 1970s.
September 16, 2024. We started the important topic of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. That topic is divided into three parts, and we covered the first two parts. It is the 1940s and 1950s period before his switch to the Republican Party, and the 1960s period of his switch from Democratic to Republican. In both eras, I divided his policies and statements into non-racial versus racial policies and statements. If you missed class, you can do this classification yourself by dividing the bold faced print in the first three long paragraphs of the notes into non-racial and racial elements of the first two eras.
September 18, 2024. We talked about the last era of Thurmond, when he ran for reelection as a Republican, and stressed constituency service. See the notes for the many specific examples. We also talked about current events.
September 20, 2024. We talked about three Republican public officials in 21st century South Carolina: Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham, and Tim Scott.
September 23, 2024. We talked about the string of Democratic governors of the closing decades of the 20th century in Georgia- Clinton and Miller especially.
September 25, 2024. We talked about the three Republican Georgia governors of the 21st century, and the three Republican Georgia U.S. senators of the 21st century, and what their strengths were.
September 27, 2024. We talked about the election of two Democratic Senators in 2020 in Georgia and why that occurred, and about the re-election of one of them in 2022.
September 30, 2024. We talked about Alabama's George Wallace, who can be divided into three eras: early common man days, racist days, the inclusive economic liberal final days. We covered the first two eras.
October 2, 2024. We covered the last era of George Wallace, which was his racially inclusive, economic liberalism. We also talked about Republican dominance in this century.
October 4, 2024. A review is expected, since the in-class essay exam is Monday. Check out the exam posted.
October 7, 2024. The midterm exam is today.
October 9, 2024. We returned the graded tests (your midterm progress grade is in Banner), and talked about the book reports.
October 14, 2024. We talked about Mississippi Senators John Stennis, Thad Cochran, and Cindy Hyde-Smith.
October 16, 2024. We talked about Mississippi Senators Trent Lott and Roger Wicker. There was extensive class discussion about experiences that students had with both of them, especially in internships.
October 18, 2024. We covered Mississippi governors from 1971 to the present.
October 21, 2024. We covered the background and policies of Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, and the gubernatorial elections from 1971 thru 1987.
October 23, 2024. We talked about David Duke and the 1991 gubernatorial election in Louisiana between Edwards and Duke. We then talked about how Republicans have won both of the Senate seats in recent years.
October 25, 2024. We talked about the Republican and Democratic governors elected from Louisiana in this century.
October 28, 2024. We started Texas by talking about successful Senators of the last century, Democrats Lloyd Bentsen and Republicans John Tower and Phil Gramm. We then started the important topic of Governor George Bush and the incumbent he defeated, Ann Richards. Of these four related topics, we covered Ann Richards' background and policies, and the personal style and policy views that helped Bush defeat her in 1994.
October 30, 2024. We talked about Governor Bush's policies as governor, his personal style in governing, and how he won a landslide reelection. We also talked about the two governors who succeeded him, Republicans Rick Perry and Greg Abbott.
November 1, 2024. We talked about the most recent U.S. Senators, all Republicans. They are John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Ted Cruz. We also talked about the Texas chapter in the book.
November 4, 2024. We began talking about North Carolina, and discussed Senator Jesse Helms, a conservative Republican U.S. senator from the last century. We also talked about the presidential election.
November 6, 2024. We talked about four term governor James Hunt, a Democrat from North Carolina. We also talked about the U.S. elections of last night.
November 8, 2024. We talked about the more recent governors and senators from North Carolina, but that material will not be on the test. We briefly talked about the textbook, and I reminded students to finish reading that book.
November 11, 2024. We talked about Tennessee leaders before 1994.
November 13, 2024. We talked about Tennessee governors and senators after 1994.
November 15, 2024. We talked about the book chapters on Tennessee and Arkansas, as well as about current events.
November 18, 2024. We covered the important topic of Arkansas Democratic titans, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor.
November 20, 2024. We'll cover the important topic of Bill Clinton. I expect we'll also cover the Republican successes of this century.
November 22, 2024. The written book reports (typed, double spaced) are due Monday, though you can feel free to turn the reports in today (which was the original deadline in the syllabus).
November 25, 2024. The book reports are due today. Give me a hard copy.