Why is Tennessee so Republican?

[NYCButterfinger]

It wasn't always so....

In the 1990s, Tennessee was a Southern battleground state, moderate Democrats like Al Gore and Phil Bredesen and Harold Ford, Jr. would rule the roost and moderate Republicans like Lamar Alexander would rule as well.

I know Gore lost Tennessee in 2000 20 years ago, but what happened?

Why are the Nashville suburbs so conservative compared to the Dallas suburbs or even the Phoenix suburbs?

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Racism pure and simple.

[walkingman]

4. I agree...racism and religious nuts.

[RockCreek]

2. Rightwing religous groups? Speculating. N/t

[walkingman]

5. I agree...racism and religious nuts.

[Laelth]

3. My friends in Tennessee are equally mystified.

They generally think that Tennessee’s relative “whiteness” (compared to most Southern states) is the best explanation, but make no mistake. Tennessee is very Republican these days, and my friends don’t see that changing any time soon.

-Laelth

[NYCButterfinger]

11. I have visited TN before, I don't understand how it goes from Gore/Bredesen to Blackburn/KKK Lee

How?

[NYCButterfinger]

12. I have visited TN before, I don't understand how it goes from Gore/Bredesen to Blackburn/KKK Lee

How?

[walkingman]

6. I have a brother that live in Tennessee and they basically live in a bubble. White neighborhood and

lives are surrounded by religion.....totally. They view anyone other than their kind as lower than dirt and not nearly as smart as them. I find it disgusting but growing up in the Deep South not surprising.

[Yavin4]

7. Non-College educated, White voters

The higher their percentage, the more Republican the state is.

white college nongraduates have preferred the GOP to the Democratic Party for most of the past two decades, with at least a slight Republican advantage in affiliation for 15 of the past 20 years. The exceptions were in 1999, the year of the Republican-led Senate trial attempting to remove President Bill Clinton from office, and 2006 through 2009, troubled years for the U.S. related to the Iraq War and the Great Recession, mostly under Republican President George W. Bush. By 2010, after President Barack Obama's honeymoon was over, the Affordable Care Act became law and the Tea Party movement emerged as a political force, non-college whites' loyalties to the GOP were re-established, and they have become even stronger than before.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/248525/non-college-whites-affinity-gop-trump.aspx

[Ferrets are Cool]

19. It's always been like this but it wasn't always repug

Your answer, while it seems credible, doesn't figure in how it used to be a Democratic state.

[Yavin4]

24. The FDR coalition of the 20th century was extremely fragile

African Americans and working class Whites voted Democrat largely because of economic issues. It was an uneasy coalition which blew up when African Americans pressured the Democrats to pass the Civil Rights legislation and in essence, fractured the FDR coalition.

Carter briefly put it back together in 1976, but Reagan destroyed it once and for all. Ever since then the White working class has voted Republican.

[Drunken Irishman]

25. Right. It only worked because Democrats were extremely moderate on racial issues.

It started falling apart the second Truman pushed for more civil rights legislation, including desegregating the armed forces.

FDR got away with it because he largely avoided civil rights. Sure, the New Deal opened new opportunity to blacks but they were still basically second class citizens.

The second Democrats actually moved to pass laws helping blacks, the whites, specifically southern whites, raised hell and started moving away from the party.

[kurtcagle]

8. Ironically, demographics

Nashville saw its heyday in the 1970s to 1990s, when a lot of music industry folk were at their zenith. Unlike a lot of cities, Nashville didn't prosper much with the Internet, and the city has been in a slow decline for a while now. At the same time, a lot of older people retired to the more rural parts of the state, which can be beautiful but are VERY conservative, and yeah, very racist. Dallas and Phoenix, on the other hand, have both seen significant growth primarily by college-educated tech workers, even as some of the allure of Sun City wore off with record-high heat-waves and an aging demographic simply dying off.

[Blue_true]

15. There is some what of a renaissance of Nashville, led by Vanderbilt University.

It likely will never gather the forward momentum of the Research Triangle of North Carolina, but a university can have a large impact on technology development of an area.

[TNProfessor]

29. Umm

Not really true at all. Over the past decade, Nashville has been growing pretty rapidly.

[kurtcagle]

32. That's quite possible

I was in Nashville nearly a decade ago, and that was my impression then, but it is outdated. If it is growing again, this is good news.

[MyNameGoesHere]

9. Ha. My first time living in TN

Was in Millington. It's near Memphis. I was in the Navy going to Avionics C school. During orientation they warned us to be aware of KKK activity and bars that banned black folks. That was 1980. That kind of racism doesn't go away.

[MarcA]

10. The culture wars are a continuation of the War of the Lost Cause.

The Past is not dead and buried, it's not even Past.

[beachbumbob]

13. Education ranking, #35 for starters

[PTWB]

14. Ignorance!

Anyone who votes Republican is ignorant.

[JI7]

16. Democrats there were conservatives

[NCjack]

17. It is bigger than TN. I think it was economic contraction and competition for jobs

related to coal production and electricity production. TVA had promised to get the region off of coal and onto to hydro power, but instead TVA became the biggest consumer of coal, set the price for coal, and forced it lower. The replacement economy was never developed by TVA. Instead, TVA became a huge electricity utility, fed by coal. Economic transformation, like the slavery transformation, was developed by whites for whites. Operating on racism.

[dalton99a]

18. Vast swaths of Tennessee are populated by Jesus-freak hillbillies who hate Obama

and people of color (Mexican and Chinese restaurants excepted)

Same comment applies to Appalachia in general

[LanternWaste]

20. 'Some people say...' gerrymandering.

[Hoyt]

21. Georgia had Democrats in 1990s in key positions. But the white wingers came

on strong at that point.

[radius777]

22. Clinton/Gore brought back some conservative Dems (Dixiecrats)

because they were moderate southern white guys.

But when the Dixiecrats realized Clinton/Gore were culturally liberal (and that PoC, women, etc supported them) the Dixiecrats continued their long transition (since 1964) towards to GOP.

A similar backlash occured after Obama became president in 2008, where conservative Dems in the Midwest started to move away from the Dem party - in 2012 and and 2014 and then Trump wins those states in 2016.

At the same time we've gained strength states like NV, CO, VA, AZ, GA, NC and even TX that were previously very red. The reason is they have large metro areas w/cities and suburbs that are culturally liberal and open to the Dem message.

[kimbutgar]

23. Radio stations only broadcasting right wing bull,shit.

There is no counter programming. Sinclair owner stations, Fox.

Lack of critical thinking !

[Wanderlust988]

26. Tennessee should be more moderate than Kentucky

But it's not. I can't explain why. They have 3 major metro areas, and one which is big and heavily African-American. Not sure why they keep electing right wing nut jobs statewide. At least in my state of Kentucky, we did elect a Democratic governor and have been doing so for a long time now.

[Ahpook]

27. Religion nutters

I live in Nashville and think it very blue. I have friends in Knoxville and it seems purple'ish? I would think Memphis and Chatt are about the same.

I've asked the same question!

The burbs making it red is kind of strange to me.

[pansypoo53219]

28. bible belt + pro fetus shit. always the fetus. i have visited.when bible stuff is bathroom graffiti,

you know you are somewhere else.

[Initech]

30. Religion

Ever since the clergy went hard right, they've taken and ruined everything in their path.

[Klaralven]

31. From an edX course I'm taking....

The Republicans, as we'll see, ideologically more or less stayed in the same place. It was the Democrats who moved from being to the right of the Republican Party to the left.

In the 19th century, the Democratic Party was basically a Libertarian Party.

It argued for low taxes, very weak national government. It was suspicious of a national bank, of most sort of federalized activities.

It believed in the rights of states.

The 20th century Democratic Party is clearly to the left of the Republican Party. It argues that the Republican ideal gives the government too little power, and so it argues for a strong national government.

===================== End quote

I think this is basically true. William Jennings Bryan, who headed the Democratic ticket in 1896, 1900 and 1908, who attacked evolution in the Scopes Trial, and who is famous for "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold" while leading the Western states' crusade for bimetallism would not fit comfortably in the modern Democratic Party. He would be a Republican.