This is an interesting question, but the answer always leads back to that old chestnut, race relations. (No, I am not saying all southern whites are racist. Bear with me.) From the time when northern states freed their slaves and bondage became "the peculiar institution"- that is, peculiar to the South- the political tone set by Dixie's elite has been reactionary, even backwards. The main cause of these elites from antebellum times through the 1960s was to retain their economic and political power, chiefly by beating the drum of white supremacy.*
Today, of course, the cause of segregation is buried in the same shallow grave that fascism is rotting in, but the old reactionary streak in southern politics remains alive and well- thriving, even. The party that the rightists now associate with is the GOP, of course (a little historical irony that the early Republicans presumably would not find very funny), but they still keep alive their ideals of militarism and hostility to the working class.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that although
race itself is no longer the issue, the majority of southern whites still feel compelled to vote against their old enemies: northern liberals and southern blacks. And, yes, vice versa. This is an irrepressible conflict, folks.
* This didn't always work, of course- there was the brief success of Reconstruction Republicanism, the Populist and Socialist revolts of the 1890s-1910s, even the frequent victories of New Deal populists over right-wingers in Democratic primaries later on- but these were exceptions to the rule.
I read somewhere that 20%?! of blacks in Cincinnati were Republicans?
I don't think Ken Blackwell is 20 percent of Cincinnati's black population.
