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Northern Florida would have more southern culture because of the states (AL,GA) it borders but South Florida is just a whole different world down there.
You have your facts wrong. South Calif. was settled by southerners that wanted to join the confederacy but North Calif. was foremost authority and didn't let South Calif., AZ, nm split from union control. AZ is full of conservative descendants of the southerners that pilgrimaged to LA, Bakersfield, Fresno, etc.
Go spread your gospel. Only areas that never were southern were Northeast, PNW, North Calif., Hawaii, Alaska, maybe Florida.
Most of the Southern settlement in California was from Dust Bowl Migrants from Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas and they mainly settled in the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire. Those areas still have Southern Accent influences today.
You have your facts wrong. South Calif. was settled by southerners that wanted to join the confederacy but North Calif. was foremost authority and didn't let South Calif., AZ, nm split from union control. AZ is full of conservative descendants of the southerners that pilgrimaged to LA, Bakersfield, Fresno, etc.
Go spread your gospel. Only areas that never were southern were Northeast, PNW, North Calif., Hawaii, Alaska, maybe Florida.
You go off claiming that South California and Arizona were Southern and then claim that Florida might've never been Southern?
^^^^In a way, I could just cite this as a reason why Texas is still as Conservative as it is, instead of the reasoning that Texas is Conservative because it's "immersed in Southern culture". In a way, one can say that the overall voting patterns, and culture that is still prominent in Texas, has just as much to do with Conservative Northern and Western transplants moving to Texas, as Florida going Blue has to do with Northeastern transplants to the state. So current voting patterns in Texas might have nothing to do with "Southern" culture per se. People going Red or Blue has nothing to do with regional affiliation. Or maybe Texans are more socially Conservative, while California Conservative transplants are just more fiscally Conservative, and wouldn't social issues that Texans would mind.
We know Texas is "immersed in southern culture" because only a handful of states have higher percentages of Southern Baptists (MS, AL, SC, GA). The day when Texas gets down to around Florida's percentage (10% of the non-Hispanic White population), then we can say "it's changed!" but for now there's still a large and powerful fundamentalist contigency that's pushing suburban school districts to teach creationism.
Lind (The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics) delves deep into the heart of George W. Bush's Texas, and what he finds may give moderates pause and send liberals scurrying. According to Lind (a fifth-generation Texan), the politics of West Texas are steeped in racism, environmental exploitation, jingoistic militarism, crony capitalism, an anti-public education bias and a fundamentalist evangelicalism inconsistent with the separation of church and state. About President Bush's relation to these beliefs, Lind in part merely implies it by association, saying, "Cultural geography is of little use in analyzing the personalities of politicians-but it is indispensable in understanding their politics." However, Lind argues, with considerable verve, that the constellation of political beliefs embodying Bush-style politics is designed to exploit the nation's natural and human resources for the benefit of a powerful oligarchy. According to Lind, Bush's election translates to the "capture... of the vast power of the federal apparatus by Southern reactionaries...."
^^^^In a way, I could just cite this as a reason why Texas is still as Conservative as it is, instead of the reasoning that Texas is Conservative because it's "immersed in Southern culture". In a way, one can say that the overall voting patterns, and culture that is still prominent in Texas, has just as much to do with Conservative Northern and Western transplants moving to Texas, as Florida going Blue has to do with Northeastern transplants to the state. So current voting patterns in Texas might have nothing to do with "Southern" culture per se. People going Red or Blue has nothing to do with regional affiliation. Or maybe Texans are more socially Conservative, while California Conservative transplants are just more fiscally Conservative, and wouldn't social issues that Texans would mind.
Aren't most transplants to Texas from other parts of the south?
We know Texas is "immersed in southern culture" because only a handful of states have higher percentages of Southern Baptists (MS, AL, SC, GA). The day when Texas gets down to around Florida's percentage (10% of the non-Hispanic White population), then we can say "it's changed!" but for now there's still a large and powerful fundamentalist contigency that's pushing suburban school districts to teach creationism.
The non-Southern, Non-Tejano, Mexican population in Texas has grown just as fast, as the West-Indian population and Northern transplant population in Florida. Just looking at how high the percentages of Catholics are in the largest 5 Texas cities, compared to that of the largest 5 Florida cities, I'd say Texas is almost even with Florida.
Given the 10million plus Hispanics in Texas, and the overall demographic shift from Blacks being the largest minority in cities like Houston and Dallas to Hispanics being the largest minority, how hard is it not to see that Texas has changed? Change doesn't mean becoming more Liberal and completely rejecting Evangelicalism.
Why does the Southern Baptist percentage have to dip so low, to view Texas as different from the rest of the South? Does Texas have to reach 16million New, Non-Southern Baptist, Non-Evagelical, Pro-Science, Non-Accent-Having, Hispanics? I think we should just agree that Texas is both more Southern than Florida, and more un-Southern than the rest of the South.
Because even though Texas has the highest number of Republicans, Evangelicals, and Whites with Southern accents, it also has the highest number of Non-Evangelicals in the South(Catholics, non-Baptist Asians, etc, etc,) the 2nd highest number of Democrats in the South(by sheer numbers/population) and one of the highest numbers of non-English Speakers in the South.
All of this because it's Texas...and Texas is REALLY big.So by default its gonna have the most of alot in the South. Once again, I'll give the Most-Southern edge to Texas, because those White New Yorkers in Florida just won't stop moving down there.
Here are some clips from other reviews of the book.
Quote:
In this book however, Lind analyses and examines George W. Bush's policies and links them to the influential continuum of the cultural and political forces of Texas: the Deep South, Southern Protestants, and the Neo-conservative foundations that were solidified by his father's, administration.
Quote:
Lind expands more on his home-state of Texas. The state of Texas is often seen misappropriately, as culturally Western, but in fact it's clearly Southern, and Deeply Southern. This has always been apparent to those who've lived in and/or studied the South and Texas.
Northern Florida would have more southern culture because of the states (AL,GA) it borders but South Florida is just a whole different world down there.
I know South Florida is different. My family lives in South Florida. Born and raised for nearly a century. They look at themselves as Southerners. *shrugs* Were they and the people I know down there wrong?
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