“Nixon’s “southern strategy” was to counter racist Democratic candidates , who before that had a lock on the South”

Really?

Hm. Let’s see how Nixon’s political strategist Kevin Philips described the “Southern Strategy”:

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that… but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.

So according to Nixon’s political strategist, they WANTED the “Negrophobes” to join the GOP because “that’s where the votes are.”

Look, guy, I know you — like most people — do try to be a good and honest man, and you don’t want to think that you’re on the side of the racists. But the Republicans did elect (and still strongly support) Trump, who was twice sued by the government for refusing to lease properties to Black people, and who chose Steve Bannon (who strongly appears to be a white nationalist) and Stephen Miller (who strongly appears to be an outright racist) to be senior advisers in the White House.

By their actions shall ye know them, remember?