Republicans found success in the 1970s due to racist backlash and good organization
Lowe attributes the Republican Party's success to racist backlash and good organization, but argues that when the GOP loses, it loses badly, because it pours itself so completely into each race.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Charles M. Lowe, March 20, 1975. Interview B-0069. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- MOYE:
-
The Republicans have been quite successful. Strong organization, do you
think, is the primary…Concentrating on a certain type of
person. Or, are they maybe getting a backlash from some of the
racial?
- LOWE:
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Well, it's a combination of things. Part of it
is…You do get a backlash, of course, from racial things. The
Republicans do concentrate, and the Republicans are together.
They're well organized. They're well financed.
They stand behind their candidates. They turn out on election day. At
the same time, this is their weakness, too, because, when their
candidates or their philosophy goes against them, they have nothing to
fall back on because they have given their all to begin with. They have
no reserves. This is the weakness of the Republicans and the strength of
the Democrats. We can bring victory out of defeat. They
can't. When they go down, they go down hard, and
it's a long time coming back.
