The South

From RationalWiki

The South is usually identified as the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America which consisted of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. The South is currently defined by the US Census as the above listed states, as well as Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma^[1].

Although the South fought to secede from the Union during the U.S. Civil War, today they are known as much as all the other states of the Union for their patriotism and commitment to morality in government.

1 Presidential politics
- 1.1 1964 to 1992
- 1.2 1992 to 2004
2 Military history
3 Education
4 Footnotes

[edit] Presidential politics

From the end of the Civil War to the 1960 election, the "Solid South" as political pundits called it, nearly always supported Democratic candidates. Since 1964, the South has become increasingly important to Presidential victors.

[edit] 1964 to 1992

The Solid South began to break down in the 1964 election, when five southern states voted for Republican Barry Goldwater. The largest, and President Johnson's home state, Texas, remained Democratic. In 1968, Richard Nixon carried Florida, and the Carolinas, while an Independent, George Wallace, carried the rest, with the exception of Texas, which remained Democratic. Former Democratic Gov. George Wallace commenting on his 1968 Presidential bid declared that by using a base of electoral votes in the Solid South ^[2] and adding a few Northern and Midwestern industrial belt states, a candidate could accumulate enough electoral votes to win. Wallace did not win in 1968, but by 1972, winning candidates Richard Nixon (1972), Jimmy Carter (1976), Ronald Reagan (1984), and George H.W. Bush (1988) carried every southern state. The exception to this was Reagan's election in 1980 when he carried every southern state except incumbent President Jimmy Carter's home state of Georgia.

[edit] 1992 to 2004

In 1992 Democratic candidate Bill Clinton reassembled Carter's coalition and carried Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia in 1992, but lost Georgia in 1996.^[3] George W. Bush (2000 and 2004) carried every Southern state including 2000 Democratic candidate and incumbent Vice President Al Gore's home state of Tennessee.

[edit] Military history

Large numbers of southerners have served in the U.S. military. During the Civil War southerners did not volunteer in large enough numbers to match the military needs of the South. Approximately twenty percent of all Confederate soldiers were therefore draftees (compared to eight percent in the Union armies), and they were subject to “compulsory reenlistment.”^[4]

[edit] Education

The South continues to lag behind the rest of the United States in terms of academics. Some of this has been attributed to poverty, but much of it is the result of a conservative voting base that is unwilling to support public education.