Does this statement by republican hero, Lee Atwater, still hold true today?

More or less it still holds true. Unfortunately for the old style republicans, the party has been mostly taken over by the religious right. Their agenda is "values voters." The old school republican party of small government and fiscal responsibility was mortally wounded by Reagan's supply side economics, and met its death under G. W. Bush. Republicans still use the same tricks to hold the south, but now the leaders drink the kool-aid too.