So about the south being a bastion of racism..

[DinoDoc]

I live in the South. Ask me anything!!

Why should we take seriously claims of racism being the entire reason for the loss of Southern support for the Democratic Party?

[kentonio]

Why should we take seriously claims of racism being the entire reason for the loss of Southern support for the Democratic Party?

Because you'd have to be completely retarded to think the country switched parties because of Nixons choice of ties?

[PLATO]

Why should we take seriously claims of racism being the entire reason for the loss of Southern support for the Democratic Party?

I don't believe that racism was the sole reason. It definitely had a strong influence, but was not the "entire" reason. The South took a long time recovering from the war. The county I grew up in did not achieve the same level of economic activity it had in 1861 until 1971. Today it is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. I believe that another strong reason for the Republican party gaining strength is the growing affluence of Southerners during the time period. The post WW2 era changed so many things in the South...particularly with respect to infrastructure. With infrastructure came opportunity and with opportunity cam affluence. Many of the newly affluent began to identify with the Republican party for reasons other than racism.

However...only an idiot would not recognize the power of racism in moving a majority of the population. Fortunately, that kind of myopic thinking is fading in the South....

[Dauphin]

Have black people lost the power of their vote because of the party alignment? I.e the Republicans don't pitch to that demographic because they see it as a waste, and the Democrats take the bloc for granted (or assume they'll lose in the South) so never seek to represent that constituency?

Or put another way, where are the battleground swing states that get the election promises, and are they mainly white or Hispanic, not black?

[giblets]

Black people are over-represented in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. Ohio's black population is roughly the same as the national average. Iowa and New Hampshire are almost entirely non-hispanic white, while Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico have significant hispanic populations.

[The Mad Monk]

Eh. I save my hate for truly awful things, like sand.

Is that a subtle Star Wars reference?