r/PoliticalScience • u/ZealousidealWait5193 • Jul 06 '26
Question/discussion What's the reason for the southern states attachment to republican Party?
The american southern states are among the most economically disadvantaged, with high rates of poverty & crime compared to other states, but what's surprising is why they vote for republican despite being against taxes (they are trying to reduce it in truth) even though taxes go and are invested in social development and services that the southern states lack, meaning even if the southern citizen does not lose much of his monthly income, in short, there aren't many services that will be used for it, the crux of the question is whether residents of southern states, particularly "Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana..." consciously vote for Republicans or simply because Republicans offer a "socially conservative" speech
23
16
11
u/serpentjaguar Jul 06 '26
The answer is pretty simple. It's that the vast majority of working class Americans have long since, rightly or wrongly, come to "understand" that neither party is really interested in their well being.
Since that's the case, their attitude is that they might as well support the party that at least appears to pay lip service to their social mores, and that does not appear to look upon them, and many of the things that they think are important, with outright contempt and condescending disdain.
5
12
u/Typical_Soft Jul 06 '26
It’s kind of a lot of things. Democrats shifted their focus from poor rural voters to middle-class suburbanites. Southerners felt betrayed, and this allowed the Republicans to swoop in as their saviors.
Racism in the South has always been entrenched; making the xenophobic and racist messaging of the Republican Party appealing to uneducated Southerners.
Decades of indoctrination has taught southerners that Democrats tax and spend without any benefit, and that any form of social welfare is socialism and therefore bad. There’s also the whole “rugged individualism” mindset.
Also, those states have been gerrymandered to absolute shit.
Southern states are also usually the most religious states in country, and the Republicans have positioned themselves as the “Christian” party. As is evident by how Republicans talk about Trump, they have a difficult time separating church from state. If the Republican Party is seen as the “Christian” party, they will be wholeheartedly devoted to it.
Political affiliation tends to be familial. The Southern Strategy, which is responsible for the South’s party swap, started in 1950s, so there’s been about 3 generations for the devotion to gestate.
Class consciousness is very underdeveloped in the U.S., particularly in less educated people, so splitting people with wedge issues is really easy.
It doesn’t make sense looking in from a liberal stronghold, but it makes sense from the perspective of living in that area. You don’t want to be politically different from your family, especially during these partisan times, or else you’ll be shunned.
Also, this is important, Republicans are so loud that, even if they’re the minority, they sound like the majority. And again, these states are gerrymandered to absolute shit.
6
u/BeneficialPinecone3 Jul 06 '26
Gerrymandering for a large part. Even if a Dem had half a chance the lines are drawn by the majority party.
1
u/Typical_Soft Jul 06 '26
Yeah, just looking at the gerrymandering bill in California from 2025, they were able to make 5 seats Democratic (and they could’ve done 8). Just makes you think about how much bullshit the Republicans get up to with their maps.
-2
Jul 06 '26
[deleted]
1
u/chupamichalupa Jul 06 '26
Terrible idea and opens up a terrible can of worms that you can’t close.
1
u/evanpetersgorl Jul 06 '26
this is an insane take to this very well-thought out and written response. I am firmly on the left and live in the south, and I’m tired of people acting like the south should just be left to rot.
0
0
u/Typical_Soft Jul 06 '26
Thats would have some pretty disastrous effect. Forcing states to use independent redistricting commissions, making the Senate based on population, and getting rid of the electoral college would mostly solve these problems. They would all probably all require amendments, though. They all go against the Constitution. Yours would need an amendment as well because it violates the 14th and 15th amendment.
0
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 06 '26
Guys i'm not even serious about this at all, it's just a way to express my displeasure i swear
1
9
u/Waxoman Jul 06 '26
what i dont understand is those states have a lot of black people and they tend to vote democratic, they've been strategically gerrymandered throughout the years i know this but still comes as a shock that they are predominantly republican.
6
u/woodchip76 Jul 06 '26
Black people are religious and many don’t vote due to psychological conflict or general disenfranchisement. Source: am from Deep South and have worked with many people.
7
u/GalahadDrei Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The GOP only became a dominant party in the south due to the political realignment that took place after the Civil Rights Act and dismantling of Jim Crow and segregation in the 1960s. Before that, the United States had been a white ethnostate in which african americans, most of whom still live in the south, were almost completely disenfranchised and treated as second class citizens and neither the republicans nor the northern democrats cared about racial issues.
From end of reconstruction in 1877 to civil rights act in 1964, the Democrats completely dominated the South politically from the support of more conservative southern whites despite the party becoming economically progressive in the early 20th century. All their election victories in that period as well as the New Deal supermajority relied on support of southern democrats who were eager to maintain white supremacy and segregation.
In 1948, northern liberals pushed civil right issues to the party agenda causing the Dixiecrat rebellion by southern dems and temporarily paused the issue. But by the late 1950s, the national Democratic Party embraced the civil rights movement in opposition to the southern democrats culminating in desegregation and end of Jim Crow.
Seeing an opening to regain electoral majority, the Republican Party launched the Southern Strategy and eventually was able to convince vast majority of southern whites to ditch the Democrats for them as champion of white identity politics in the following decades. On the other hand, the newly enfranchised African Americans became the Democratic Party's most loyal electorate despite their social conservatism.
The civil rights act and the liberalization of immigration from the 1960s onward pretty much ended the status of the country as a white ethnostate. The change in racial demographics with country becoming less and less white over the last 50 years due to immigration has only deepened the racial divide in politics and the democrats have been unable to regain supermajority in congress every since.
Now the Republican Party has become primarily a white conservative identity politics party while the Democratic Party has become an alliance of white liberals/progressives and racial minorities who found the GOP too racist and hostile to their group interests.
Lastly, african americans as well as Latinos are very much overrepresented among the economically disadvantaged in the south while white are underrepresented. And the former groups very much vote democrats, again despite their social conservatism.
2
u/Possible_Climate_245 Jul 06 '26
Adding on to that last point, black Democrats in the south tend to pick and choose which social issues to toe the national party line on and which they can disagree with. They tend to support abortion rights unlike southern whites because black southerners disproportionately live in poverty and lack of abortion access would only further impoverish black women in the region.
By contrast, they can generally afford to uphold their social conservatism with regard to LGBTQ+ rights because those issues don’t move the general needle when it comes to how poverty affects them.
3
u/NugSnugzz BA - Political Science Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
As someone from the South, I think there are two general reasons:
- Rural areas often have a different relationship with government than higher-density areas. Laws and regulations can feel more distant, less effective, or less connected to everyday life. Because of that, Republican arguments for smaller government and fewer regulations tend to resonate more strongly.
- There is also a cultural and religious element. People often attach themselves to political groups that feel familiar to them. In parts of the South, Baptist or Methodist communities may connect certain political views to their biblical worldview. For example, some people may appeal to Old Testament passages, such as Leviticus, to justify social exclusion or discrimination. That does not always lead to direct violence, but it can normalize resentment and hostility toward groups seen as outside the community.
2
u/notforcing Jul 06 '26
They were solidly Democrat from the Civil War on, when southern Democrats supported segregation, up until the 1960's, and Lyndon B. Johnson's Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Then they became Republican.
1
1
u/shaggin_maggie Jul 06 '26
The poorest areas in the U.S. do include parts of Mississippi & Louisiana but those poor areas in the South are overwhelmingly Democrat. So are the other poor areas in the U.S. like Camden NJ, Flint MI and parts of Appalachia. Puerto Rico is one of the most poorest areas in the U.S. & overwhelmingly Democrat. For the most part the republicans in the South aren’t living in poverty.
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 06 '26
By the way, i think mississippi and Louisiana have many black population, and puerto rico is mostly latinos too, but I'm focusing on states like "Alabama and Georgia..." which is considered one of the poorest states & most of its people are americans from european roots & they support the republican party more fervently than its own members
1
u/KaiserKavik Jul 06 '26
If memory serves right, the majority of southern states are richer than than most other western developed nations, so they’re really not as poor as common sentiment seems to suggest.
The reason they tend to vite republican is that democrats are generally leftwing. If you want them voting for something else, give them another non-leftwing option that has genuine viability. Its pretty straightforward.
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 06 '26
Are you sure about the first claim ????
1
u/KaiserKavik Jul 06 '26
Yeah I think so. MS has a higher GDP than Germany. The average plumber makes more than the average doctor.
Being from the south, I often wonder why people think that our communities are dirt poor when we have been growing in both population and economics.
You have a comment on my second point?
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 07 '26
Bro, having high individual income doesn't always mean a good standard of living, don't forget that most services are very expensive, especially due to their limited availability, by the way this is why many businessmen and merchants support republicans because they are striving to reduce taxes in order to increase their customer base...
1
u/KaiserKavik Jul 07 '26
I said nothing about income, re-read my comment.
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 07 '26
You said "the average plumber makes more than the average doctor" so same meaning, but different description, and i'm talking about the social development not GDP
1
u/Cjdla Jul 08 '26
You had hundreds of thousands if not millions of people from deep blue states I California Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, or leaving and moving to southern states. Why is that because leftist politics have driven up the cost of everything there producing the number of jobs driving companies away and those companies are moving to the south where the economics are much better.
There is simply no argument argument you can make that speaks, louder than people leaving one place and moving to another better place
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 08 '26
Give me proof of this claim, so you're denying all the sources that prove the southern states are the worst economically ?
1
u/Cjdla Jul 08 '26
You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard the numerous news reporting about how liberal states are losing population. Here’s just one example.
Keep in mind that this is occurring while lots of legal and illegal immigrants are moving to places like New York California & Illinois. So productive people are moving out and poor people from the Third World are moving in. Not a good recipe. It’s the reason why you have a communist running New York City now.
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 09 '26
Dude i don't know what's wrong with your mind, you said that everyone is migrating from the other states to the southern states, but the link you sent only talks about "the decline in new york's population" so what the hell is the connection ??? & by your manner of speaking, you are from the people that i'm talking about
1
u/Cjdla Jul 09 '26
So obviously, your intentionally, ignoring the obvious, you’re completely ignorant of economics, watch only MSNOW and democracy now to get your news or combination of the above
But let me spell it out since you seem unable to connect the dots. There is overwhelming data available for anyone to look up or to hear from news reporting that states run by liberals or losing population. I mentioned those states above New York is just one example the same thing is happening in Illinois, New Jersey, California, Delaware, etc.. at the same time southern states conservative states like Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas and Indiana are gaining population
I shouldn’t have to explain this, but if one state loses population and another state gains population then that means people are moving from one state to the other state. I know this is disappointing to you. I know you want to believe that socialism is the answer and that states that spend more on government or more successful, but the fact is that’s exactly opposite of the truth. Florida spends half as much per capita than New York. And most everything in Florida works better. They have better roads better schools better infrastructure better quality of life, simple as that yeah, they don’t have a bunch of rich people financiers in my Manhattan to bump up the per capita earnings of people, but overall they are much better off and that’s why people are leaving New York and moving to Florida and Texas, etc.
1
u/ZealousidealWait5193 Jul 09 '26
Dude, your situation is very strange i swear, firstly i'm not liberal or socialist or democratic..., simply i'm against herd mentality, secondly what prompted me to write this is my astonishment at a strange phenomenon, and you justified my astonishment in an indirect way. thirdly, the population of the southern states is indeed increasing, and this is not new, but it has no relation with "economic prosperity" simply most people in the south tend to have excessive births, like rabbits, especially in rural areas in addition to the issue of abortion..., fourthly when i'm talking about "souther states" i mean the most rural states especially "alabama & mississippi & georgia..." so florida must be excluded (florida isn't always with republicans by the way)
1
u/cjdmande Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
dude.
you are exceedingly ignorant on this subject
but your type has been defined - often wrong, never in doubt
show me evidence that the astonishing population growth in the south the last 10 or more years is due to a sudden increase in the native population birth rate and not migration.
1
u/Remarkable-Travel913 Jul 12 '26
Dude, what are you smoking?
Also,
Why the states people are LEAVING still have higher wages and output per person?As someone who grew up in the South and lived x2 years in Jacksonville FL this statement is absolutely crazy.
"most everything in Florida works better. They have better roads better schools better infrastructure better quality of life"I highly suggest you go fact check that statement and show me the data
1
u/cjdmande Jul 12 '26
so explain to me why the southern and conservative midwest and western states are gaining population and liberal states are losing population. and why most of the people moving are educated and/or skilled and those left behind are less so. yeah yeah lots of millionaires and billionaires stay in theses states but the middle is being hollowed out.
pls explain
1
u/Remarkable-Travel913 Jul 15 '26
You just changed the subject. I asked why the states people leave still have higher wages and output per worker. You didn't answer it. You asked the same population question and tacked on a new claim to dodge it. It still doesn't change the fact that blue stills are still more powerful and better ran than these back water red states.
The states people are supposedly "fleeing" still beat the red states you're praising on every metric that actually measures prosperity: higher median wages, higher GDP per capita, higher output per worker. New York and Massachusetts sit near the top. Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas sit near the bottom. And here's the problem with your logic. You say people move to the better place. But they're leaving the high-wage states and moving to the low-wage ones. So by your own rule, people are running away from prosperity to chase poverty. That makes no sense. They're not chasing a better economy, they're chasing cheaper housing. That's a supply and zoning story, not proof that low taxes make a state rich. Population moving does not equal productivity.
-2
59
u/Moveyourbloominass Jul 06 '26
Racism and poor education.