Why has Tennessee become so Republican?

[memphis]

As much as it pains me to say it, Tennessee is very much like Kentucky and West Virginia. It is mostly a rural state, and even many of the people in the cities are recent migrants from the country. The old Dixiecrats and TVA Dems, whihc once made TN a Dem state, are mostly gone and today, people vote mostly on issues like abortion and gay marriage. I am stunned that they Dems have managed to hold onto TN-6 and TN-4. I expect them to be gone forever whenever the next GOP wave is. Tennessee is also not nearly as black as GA or SC, which explains why it didn't shift to Obama the way those states did.

[memphis]

Primarily, because Democrats Republicans have begun making a larger and larger emphasis on social issues.

Fixed to reflect reality.

[memphis]

Primarily, because Democrats Republicans have begun making a larger and larger emphasis on social issues.

Fixed to reflect reality.

Both parties began making a bigger deal out of social issues in the last 3+ decades. I don't think the Democrats were nearly as vocal about support for abortion and gay rights in 1980 as they are today.

How many Democrats are "vocal" about abortion and gay rights (to use your example) are there, especially in Tennessee? Conversely, how many Republicans are "vocal?" When's the last time you had a Democratic president calling for a constutional amendment to protect gay marriage?

[memphis]

The problem for Democrats here is that the state has become increasingly suburban.  Rural areas in the center and Northwest of the state that used to give Democrats big margins are growing more and more suburban and voting heavily Republican. 

Finally some decent analysis in this thread; indeed, Obama induced a massive swing among older and rural voters, but the the overall movement towards the GOP in TN has to do with the conservative suburbs.  Rural and older voters will vote for a conservative Democrat, but suburbanites won't.  Memphis pioneered white flight.  Thus, the Democrats, in order to win, have to forge a coalition that carries both Shelby and Davidson counties and the rural/small town areas.  This is extremely difficult, and it doesn't help that naive or corrupt politicians have been running the state Democratic party into the ground since the days of Kefauver and Crump.

Are you high? The strongest swings were in the Tennessee Valley. Not suburbia by any stretch of the imagination. Williamson and Rutherford, the two most populous suburban counties in Tennessee swung toward Obama.