A white male union Democrat, probably racist and xenophobic, fearful of free trade and immigrants taking jobs from Americans. Quite possibly a former George Wallace '68 voter.
most of the wallace voters were southern democrat conservatives who joined the republicans because of the republicans racial politics. they have been voting republican for a very long time
Exactly. Realignment did not happen overnight. It's not like one night, millions of white southern Democrats went to sleep, then woke up and became Republicans. They left in groups (lack of a better word). Some were turned off by support of the Civil Rights Act and became Republicans because of Goldwater. Others became Republicans after being turned off by McGovern, and Nixon's Southern Strategy. Others did not become Republicans until Reagan (The Reagan Democrats), and others until later. There are still some Blue Dog holdouts (probably mostly the fiscally liberal, socially conservative type). Even after the 1994 Republican Revolution, some Southern districts remained Democratic-held until recently (MS-04, WV-03, GA-12, NC-07, etc.) but eventually Republicans got them. It's kind of been a "top down" process: First, they started voting Republican for President, then for Senate, then for House. And you can make a strong argument that this process still hasn't been completed. Someone did a county map showing which party held the majority of county offices not too long ago, and many counties that are Republican in presidential races still reliably vote for Democrats in county races. So the Democratic loyalty is still well and alive (in some places and for some people) in the South. A few counties (like Elliott County, KY) remain Democratic at the presidential level, but that probably won't last too long. That's my 2 cents.
