ELECTION SPOILER: Obama wins in a LANDSLIDE

[johnlucas]

82. You couldn't see North Carolina going Democrat until it happened, could you?

Before 2008, the last time North Carolina went for a Democratic President was in 1976 when they picked Jimmy Carter.
But somehow Barack Obama turned that state Democratic where even Bill Clinton could not.

North Carolina is part of that infamous Solid South which was forged in the 1800s & especially fortified after the Civil War.
With few exceptions North Carolina had voted the same as other Southern states in Presidential elections.

Let's take it all the way back to right before the era of Franklin Roosevelt with the 1928 election.

1928: North Carolina goes for the Republican Herbert Hoover (U.S. Commerce Secretary from Iowa) in one of those exceptions I mentioned.
Before this North Carolina went Democratic all the way back to 1876 (the period between 1864-1872 were other exceptions for obvious reasons).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1928

1932: North Carolina goes for Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York Governor) as FDR transformed the nation with his New Deal Coalition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1932

1936: North Carolina goes for Democrat FDR once again just like the rest of the Democratic South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1936

1940: North Carolina goes for Democrat FDR one more time just like the rest of the Democratic South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1940

1944: North Carolina goes for Democrat FDR YET AGAIN just like the rest of the Democratic South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1944

1948: North Carolina goes for Democrat Harry S. Truman (FDR's once Vice President now President successor from Missouri) but now the South is split ever since Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military.
Southerners opposed to Black Equality measures cracked the cohesion of the Democratic Party as they started the States' Rights Democratic Party AKA the Dixiecrats to run against Truman.
The Dixiecrats ran Strom Thurmond (South Carolina U.S. Senator) & while the Dixiecrats got 8.8% of North Carolina's vote, the original Democrats got 58% of North Carolina's vote.
However, other Southern states voted in majority for Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond foreshadowing that Black Equality issues would crack FDR's New Deal Coalition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1948

1952: North Carolina goes for Democrat Adlai Stevenson (Illinois Governor) just like the rest of the South after Richard Russell Jr. the segregationist U.S. Senator from Georgia couldn't escape the primaries.
Harry Truman declined to run for 1952.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1952

1956: North Carolina goes for Democrat Adlai Stevenson (former Illinois Governor) by default just like the rest of the South due to a weak field of Democratic candidates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1956

1960: North Carolina goes for Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Massachusetts U.S. Senator) after an ever-growing fracture within the Democratic Party on Black Equality issues.
Southern states so dismayed at Kennedy's openness to Civil Rights started writing in candidates who didn't even say they were running. All in an effort to stop Kennedy from being the Democratic Nominee.
One of these write-ins was Lyndon Baines Johnson (the U.S. Senator & Senate Majority Leader from Texas) & he sidestepped all the primary races officially announcing his candidacy a week before the Democratic National Convention (Adlai Stevenson futilely did the same).
Kennedy "smoothed over" the deep fracture by making Johnson his Vice Presidential running mate but you could see the Solid South looking more & more crumbled with unpledged electors, write-ins of non-Kennedy candidates, & even votes for Kennedy's Republican rival Richard Nixon (Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President from California).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960

1964: North Carolina goes for Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (JFK's once Vice President now President successor from Texas) after the furious fallout from JFK's 1963 assassination & LBJ's subsequent signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in Kennedy's honor.
The fracture of FDR's New Deal Coalition was complete with many of the Solid South states voting for the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater (Arizona U.S. Senator) in protest of Johnson & the strong Civil Rights platform of the Democratic Party.
This is the election that chased the Dixiecrats away from the Democratic Party for good & set the stage for the coming Southern Strategy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1964

1968: North Carolina goes for Republican Richard Nixon (Dwight Eisenhower's former Vice President now from New York) while much of the South goes for segregationist George Wallace (the former Alabama Governor) running under the American Independent Party label.
This was the 1st time North Carolina went for a Republican since that 1928 election with Herbert Hoover.
The Solid South was solid in protest to the Democrats' Civil Rights platform but not so solid in who to back to make that protest quite yet.
With LBJ suddenly refusing to go for another term, the fracture over Vietnam War & Civil Rights, & Robert Kennedy's shocking assassination, the Democratic Party was left weak toward this newly-forming Republican coalition which courted the Southern bigots alienated by Black Equality reforms.
The Southern Strategy was born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1968

1972: North Carolina goes for Republican Richard Nixon once again just like the rest of the South.
The last hurrah for the South to revive the evil fiefdom in the Democratic Party lay within the candidacy of George Wallace (Alabama Governor) running under the Democratic Party label this time around.
But an assassination attempt in the primaries destroyed his chances as he became paralyzed from the shot.
With Wallace out of the way, Nixon had no obstacles in locking down this Southern Strategy to secure the Solid South's votes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972

1976: North Carolina goes for Democrat Jimmy Carter (former Georgia Governor)...just like the rest of the South? (except Virginia that is)
Huh? Jimmy Carter denounced segregation & racism yet he STILL wins the segregationist/racist Solid South?
The South obviously was not too used to voting for Republicans since the South was so identified with the Democrats all these decades.
Despite Jimmy Carter being FOR Black Equality he was still a Southerner & somehow this was enough to sway virtually all of the Solid South his way. Even with fellow Southerner George Wallace running against him in the primaries.
The disgust over Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal & his Vice President to President successor Gerald Ford pardoning him obviously had a whole lot to do with this turnout.
Looking at how the South voted in 1976, Carter threatened to ruin this new Southern Strategy.
Because of that he had to be politically destroyed. Hence the crap about killer rabbits & the outcome of the Iran hostage situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1976

1980: North Carolina goes for Republican Ronald Reagan (former California Governor) just like most of the South (Georgia being one notable exception).
This is the election that began the permanent realignment of the Solid South from Democratic to Republican.
Jimmy Carter was made to look weak in his term & Reagan used the Southern Strategy to pull the South away from Carter (Ted Kennedy's bitter fight against Carter this year did not help things either).
While Georgia stayed loyal to the humble peanut farmer the rest of the South jumped ship.
The Republican Party would enjoy the strength of this Southern voting block for decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1980

1984: North Carolina goes for Republican Ronald Reagan once again just like the rest of the Republican South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1984

1988: North Carolina goes for Republican George Herbert Walker Bush (Reagan's Vice President from Texas) just like the rest of the Republican South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1988

1992: North Carolina goes for Republican George Herbert Walker Bush once again like some of the South while others of the South go for Democrat Bill Clinton (Arkansas Governor).
What's happening here? The South is now a Republican stronghold. How is Bill Clinton getting all of this leeway?
Yeah, there's "independent" Republican Ross Perot (Texas businessman) cracking up some of the Republican vote but some states are going strong for Bill Clinton on their own.
Once again we got a Southern governor that can appeal to certain regions in the South despite the still-lingering grudge over the Civil Rights movement.
Even if this Southern governor goes on a Black guy's show named Arsenio Hall to play the saxophone.
Of course you know, this meant he had to be politically destroyed. The Southern Strategy was too important.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1992

1996: North Carolina goes for Republican Bob Dole (Kansas U.S. Senator) like some of the South while others of the South go for Democrat Bill Clinton once again.
Clinton's still too strong. Lewinsky him then Impeach him. That should do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1996

2000: North Carolina goes for Republican George Walker Bush (Texas Governor) just like the rest of the Republican South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000

2004: North Carolina goes for Republican George Walker Bush once again just like the rest of the Republican South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004

2008: North Carolina goes for Democrat Barack Obama (Illinois U.S. Senator) UNLIKE most of the Republican South.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008

After 7 Presidential elections of voting Republican, 28 years of voting for Republican Presidents, suddenly North Carolina votes for a Democrat.
And knowing why the Solid South is the Solid South (the racism factor) they vote for this Democratic President who is NOT Southern & half Black!
You couldn't see that coming if you looked at the historical record.

Never say never, onenote.
The Solid South is breaking up once again.
They will reform as a new Solid South THIS TIME in favor of Equality of ALL citizens when they finally rejoin the Democratic Party forged by FDR, JFK, & now BHO.
It may take a few decades to come to fruition but it will happen & this election of 2012 will be instrumental in making that happen.
John Lucas