PUNCTURING THE ‘SOUTHERN STRATEGY’ MYTH: Don Surber addresses that perennial illusion trotted out every four years by Democrats and their media allies — the idea that 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater carried only his home state of Arizona and five Deep South states, thereby launching a fundamental realignment in American politics.

Those five Southern states were the anchor of the  “Solid South” that had been uniformly Democratic since the Civil War aka “the Late Unpleasantness.” Goldwater carrying them against LBJ supposedly signified the GOP becoming the favored party of bigots, KKKers, ignorant rednecks and fans of Jim Crow.

Not true — not even close to true — and the historical facts on the ground cited by Surber today prove it.