Read The Score: Jimmy Carter

In 1966, Richard Nixon penned a column aimed at Southern readers, defining the strategic divide he envisioned for Democrats and Republicans in the South. He warned against pursuing the "fool’s gold of racist votes," writing:

Nixon rightly identified the Democrats’ long exploitation of racial injustice. Yet, he miscalculated one critical factor: their ability to manipulate the narrative not just to avoid sinking with their ship of bigotry but to tie it to Republicans as it sunk. As racism became untenable on the national stage, Democrats reinvented their image, casting off their segregationist past without facing accountability.

Jimmy Carter exemplifies this sleight of hand. Unlike many Southern segregationists, Carter obscured his true record, crafting a persona that the media and his party eagerly embraced. The result was not just individual political survival but the wholesale evasion of responsibility by a party that had profited from racial injustice for decades.

It’s time to shine a brighter light on this historical fraud and learn how a legacy of exploitation can be disguised as progress. Below are explorations of exactly how Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party squeezed the last ounces of political juice from the rotting fruit of racial injustice and got away with it.