If you remember your history, McGovern was the Democatic Party's "peace candidate."  We were in the midst (actually, unknowingly, heading toward the end) of our disastrous War in Vietnam.  Many Americans still believed we'd win in Vietnam and Nixon was their guy.  You dismiss the Peace Movement as "useful idiots" and "counterculture miscreants". History has, of course, shown that we "counterculture miscreants" were quite right in the assessment of the War and, within two years the Nixon administration realized it too.  

Don't be silly and suggest the Southern Strategy was "fake news.".....not hardly.  It was a strategy and it was effective.  "The dramatic shift in partisan allegiances had nothing to do with race" as a matter of fact, in the South and in many northern and midwestern states, it had everything to do with race.  Take a few moments and listen to Lee Atwater, the chief architect of the Southern Strategy discuss it.  I supply the link for you below: cont