Do my political research for me

[womzilla]

Years ago, probably on rasff, someone mentioned that Pat Buchanan had advised Richard Nixon to go on pursuing policies that would tear the country in two, because the Republicans would end up in control of the bigger half.

Anyone have a specific reference to such a conversation?

ETA:

beamjockey found it in a New Yorker article.

Buchanan gave this to George Packer, who wrote about it in a 2008 New Yorker article. Memo from "Research" to H.R. Haldeman, 5 October 1971, "Dividing the Democrats." In discussing a strategy to alienate conservative Democrats over racial issues, possibly bringing them into the Republican fold, Buchanan writes:

In conclusion, this is a potential throw of the dice that could bring the media on our heads, and cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half. But that is not my decision.

Comments

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

Nixon, or Reagan? At this point, Nixon seems positively benign.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Google is converging on the phrase "If we tear the country in half, we can pick up the bigger half".

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

A lot of people seem to cite Robert Hughes's Culture of Complaint as the place they got the quote. But Hughes does not actually cite the source; it's a "memo" from Buchanan to Nixon.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Found it.

http://thenewyorker.typepad.com/online__georgepacker/files/dividing_the_democrats1.pdf

Buchanan gave this to George Packer, who wrote about it in a 2008 New Yorker article. Memo from "Research" to H.R. Haldeman, 5 October 1971, "Dividing the Democrats." In discussing a strategy to alienate conservative Democrats over racial issues, possibly bringing them into the Republican fold, Buchanan writes:

In conclusion, this is a potential throw of the dice that could bring the media on our heads, and cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half. But that is not my decision.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

That's great! How did you find it?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Arduous googling down a few blind alleys, then eventually it turned up as an (linkrotten) link from Packer's article, and I found it in one more step. I am quite good at this.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

This sounds a lot like what Nixon aides called "the Southern Strategy". As the Democrats had alienated their traditional Southern base by passing Civil Rights Acts and stuff like that, move in and win the South over with dog-whistle rhetoric about States' Rights and Lawn Order.