I'm a born and bred Southerner, and although raised in Atlanta, GA. (sometimes referred to as an Island in a Sea of Ignorance), I have a native's knowledge of the Southern condition. I learned to say "No Sir" and "Yes Mam", went to church three times a week, and drank at the "White's Only" water fountain. But I was lucky. I got spanked the one and only time I used the n word. I was taught that people were people no matter their color; most of my neighbors and schoolmates were not. 

In my childhood, the South was solidly Democratic. The Republican Party was still the Party of Lincoln, the man that caused the War Between the States and freed the slaves. There wasn't much of an effort to conceal the connection between political choice and race relations. The Democrats played upon the fears of white constituents and promised to keep the "Coloreds" in their place. Local voting officials made voting difficult if not impossible for non-whites, assuring that political power remained in the hands of white Democrats.

But in 1960,the Democrats betrayed the Southern Block. The South had voted Democratic since 1880 (with the exception of Strom Thurmond's States Rights Party in 1948 which only reinforces the race tie-in). Southerners trusted the Democrats to keep things they way they were. Boy, were they wrong.

Kennedy thought that all Americans should have the right to vote and although he did not live to see it, the die was cast. The Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed the South and changed their political allegiance. Only in 1976 when "home boy" Jimmy Carter was elected, did the South vote for the Democratic ticket; in every other election, the Republican Party took the South.

So, why did this happen? Is it because of the Republican stance on abortion, on "family values", on small government, or fiscal responsibility? (the last eight years cancel out the latter two reasons, don't they?) Or is it the Republican ability to incite fear? Vote for us or the gays will molest your children, abortionists will kill the next Jesus, and perverts will rule the earth. No, just talking points that hide the real reason. Since the 13 colonies, the South has been a class based society with distinct roles for each caste. Simply put, there were the wealthy land owners at the top, the merchants and professionals next, then the mill workers and share croppers, and finally, the slaves.

Southerners don't like change: they fought a war to prevent it. They lost the war, but continue the battle. Deep in the Southerner's psyche is a desire for the past: a romantic, "Gone With The Wind" past, a past where the slaves were happy and knew their place, a past where slave owners were kind and generous - a past that never existed. I was raised in the lower class. We never owned a house and it took ten years to finally pay off our one car. But even I have felt the tug to return to that imagined past. 

But ingrained in that false memory is an ugly truth. A return to the way things were means a return to race discrimination. This is the reason not spoken: the fear that people of color will take a position of power. The white Southerners, from plumbers to politicians, are afraid that a black man will take their job, or worse: be their boss. This is the reason that George Wallace stood on the school's steps to block black students from entering the University of Alabama, this is the reason that Lester Maddox chased integrationists from his restaurant with an axe handle and became Governor of Georgia.

The fear remains today. It may be couched in "family values" but it's the same fear. And as long as it remains, and as long as the Republicans can use it to their advantage, the South will bleed Republican red.