to change differs across the South and I would argue is more pronounced in Alabama or Mississippi, for example. Some places are now more of a mixed bag, owing in part to other influences. Virginia due to the presence of DC. Georgia with a giant metropolitan Atlanta. Florida with all the retired Yankees. Indeed, Obama's ability to carry Virginia and Florida twice and North Carolina (which is going through a regression) once is a testament to change. If you had told me while growing up in Alabama that a black man would not only be President in my lifetime, but would carry three southern states to achieve that, I would have thought you crazy.

But a lot of southern change has come kicking and screaming. Still is.