Saturday's NY Times had a fascinating (to me) article on Oklahoma showing that while registered Democrats comprise 49% in 2008 with 39% registered Republicans, the state went to McCain with 66% of the vote. A breakfast discussion ensued in which I learned more about Southern Democrats. The article quotes a poultry farmer Bob Cook who says, “I just couldn’t vote for anyone who has Hussein in his name.” Someone added that there aren't many African Americans living in Oklahoma.
I'd be happy to be educated further on this topic.
4 comments:
Old line Southern Democrats are basically politically and racially conservative, they were pro-slavery prior to the Civil War and continued to be against racial equality after it. As the Democratic party moved more to the left (particularly in the area of racial equality) the conservative old line Southern Democrat began to be wooed by the Republican party. This was accelerated during the Nixon runs for president, the Republican party seeing an opportunity to swell its conservative numbers.
Currently, those who continue to define themselves as Democrats tend to be urban in character and much more liberal and they are joined by the 8.1% African American and 11.4% Native American populations that reside in Oklahoma.
Chris Wible who has to use her faded Political Science degree for something.
Thank you Chris! This is very helpful.
You might want to talk to Dianna, who grew up in Bethany, OK. You might especially ask her about her high school classmates with whom she is still in contact: diannawoolley@mac.com
CP
Although, my parents were solid Democratic Southern liberals in the sixties...don't know where that fits in to the grand scheme.
Also, although Oklahoma is *technically* the south, it is still very different from say North or South Carolina.
And Southern and redneck aren't always equivalent, either, though they are often lumped together.
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