Changes

Phillips defended the two-party format on the grounds that competition can produce excellence and questioned how competitive general elections would be "dangerous" because white voters had for years been divided in contentious Democratic primary runoff elections.<ref>''The Jackson Daily News,'' October 18, 1963; ''Biloxi-Gulfport Daily Herald,'' September 20, 1963.</ref> Phillips stressed that in the 1850s, when Mississippi Democrats faced competition from [[Whigs]], the state ranked fifth nationally in per capita income. Like Johnson, Phillips felt compelled to denounce the [[Radical Republicans|Radical]] Reconstruction policies of the 1860s and 1870s.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Phillips defended the two-party format on the grounds that competition can produce excellence and questioned how competitive general elections would be "dangerous" because white voters had for years been divided in contentious Democratic primary runoff elections.<ref>''The Jackson Daily News,'' October 18, 1963; ''Biloxi-Gulfport Daily Herald,'' September 20, 1963.</ref> Phillips stressed that in the 1850s, when Mississippi Democrats faced competition from [[Whigs]], the state ranked fifth nationally in per capita income. Like Johnson, Phillips felt compelled to denounce the [[Radical Republicans|Radical]] Reconstruction policies of the 1860s and 1870s.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

​

​

Gilbert Ellzey "Gil" Carmichael (1927-2016), a Meridian businessman who managed Phillips' 1963 campaign in Lauderdale County and was later the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1972 against [[James Eastland]] and then for governor in both 1975 and 1979, said in a civic club debate that he found it:​

[[Gil Carmichael|Gilbert Ellzey "Gil" Carmichael]], a Meridian businessman and Moderate Republican who managed Phillips' 1963 campaign in Lauderdale County and was later the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1972 against [[James Eastland]] and then for governor in both 1975 and 1979, said in a civic club debate that he found it:​

<blockquote> ... peculiar to defend something I have always taken for granted ... Who, a few years ago, would have thought it possible to have reached the point ... where it is necessary to defend the human right to a choice? ... I fear that the state Democratic Party is unwittingly being used as a tool for the same goals of the national party. ... Today, the majority of whites of this state are not one-party Democrats but true independents -- and they are glad that there is the beginning of a second party -- so they can have a real choice.<ref>''The Meridian Star,'' October 1, 1963.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote> ... peculiar to defend something I have always taken for granted ... Who, a few years ago, would have thought it possible to have reached the point ... where it is necessary to defend the human right to a choice? ... I fear that the state Democratic Party is unwittingly being used as a tool for the same goals of the national party. ... Today, the majority of whites of this state are not one-party Democrats but true independents -- and they are glad that there is the beginning of a second party -- so they can have a real choice.<ref>''The Meridian Star,'' October 1, 1963.</ref></blockquote>