America's stealth 3rd party

There's has been a ‘stealth’ third party in American politics since the late 19th century. They came to be known as Dixiecrats, and actually were an overt third party in 1948, when their candidate, Strom Thurmond, won four Southern states. Since then, as the national Democratic Party has taken stronger positions on civil rights, the Dixiecrats became the Southern-strategy success story for the Republican Party. And today, some of the Dixiecrats political/creedal descendants are a part of the Freedom Caucus.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose