Message to Llewlladdwr & all other Southerners: Perspective on the South bashing.

[johnlucas]

45. Read my post about The Southern Strategy

I made a giant post a few days ago going all the way back to the beginning with how the American political parties formed & why.
It was called A long story about The Southern Strategy.

In it you will see that The South didn't remain just in The South.
The Mexican War of the 1840s was fought for Southern interests for the purpose of gaining more land for more Representatives (among other reasons).
The Utah Territory & New Mexico Territory gained from that war covers most of today's Southwestern States.
That 1820 Missouri Compromise with the Mason-Dixon Free State/Slave State thing encouraged the Democrats to further extend their already formidable political grip on the United States.
It goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson & Alexander Hamilton & their views on how the U.S.A. should develop.

And also people spread out so some moved north, west, east over time.
Indiana used to be a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan, remember?
Southern cowboys rode all the way up & down the Heartland. From Texas to Montana.
There's a reason why Republicans do so strong in Heartland, Southwestern, Mountain states.

ALSO the Southern Strategy after 1964 was creating a coalition of bigotry.
Since Southerners were usually Southern Baptist it tied into this Moral Majority strategy which united people over "social conservative" grounds. This allowed people not identified with the South per se to jump onboard the new Conservative philosophy.
All this was building in the 1970s then Reagan hit in 1980.

Remember all those televangelists on TV?

Jerry Falwell was from Lynchburg, Virginia.
700 Club's Pat Robertson was from Lexington, Virginia.
Jimmy Swaggart was from Ferriday, Louisiana.

We're looking at the end result of a long evolution.
But the root of it comes back to the Southern plantations & the slavery of Black people.
That's why Black people always end up realigning the parties.
It's happening right now in 2012.
John Lucas