Can We Blame It on Racism?

From "How the GOP Conquered the South" by Michael Nelson in The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 21, 2005, B14.

The greatest change in American national politics of the past 60 years has been the transformation of the South from the most solidly Democratic to the most solidly Republican region of the country. In the 1930s and 1940s, Democrats enjoyed a strong advantage in presidential elections because they could count on winning the 127 electoral votes cast by the 11 states of the old confederacy…

Consider how much has changed. In 2004 John F. Kerry ran up a 252-133 electoral-vote lead over George W. Bush outside the South but lost the election because the Sough went 153-0 for Bush. In the current Congress, although Democrats from non-Southern states outnumber Republican non-Southerners by 41-37 in the senate and 154-150 in the House, the GOP has converted its Southern majorities—82-49 in the House and 18-4 in the Senate—into control of both chambers.