Outside of the cities,are there any substantial differences between the southeast states culturally

[SaneDemocrat]

Like how much different would you expect a town that it is 70% White and 30 % black in rural TN vs The same town in MS or Sc?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

I know for South Carolina you can predict how counties vote by looking at the white/black population. The only exceptions are Richland and Charleston which have a high amount of white democrats. I imagine this is pretty similar to most of the rural south.

[H. Ross Peron]

While blacks are overwhelmingly Democratic and whites heavily Republican everywhere in the South, there are clear *cultural* differences in the rural South. For example the Gullah culture of South Carolina is very distinct from the rest of the Black Belt South and some black majority counties in SC have large populations of Bahai converts. There's even more differences among the white population, most notably the French Cajuns.

[Sol]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

While blacks are overwhelmingly Democratic and whites heavily Republican everywhere in the South, there are clear *cultural* differences in the rural South. For example the Gullah culture of South Carolina is very distinct from the rest of the Black Belt South and some black majority counties in SC have large populations of Bahai converts. There's even more differences among the white population, most notably the French Cajuns.

While you’re right about the cultural distinctions (Gullah/Geechee culture is fascinating) you’re over estimating Bahaiism in the state. I live in the region where it’s most common percentage wise and while we have a Bahai radio station, Marion County, the county with the most converts as a percent, is like 2% Bahai.

Another interesting local religion tradition is the snake handlers of Appalachia

I also wanna point out distinctions between Mountain vs. Coastal, Deep South vs. Peripheral South, Upper Class vs. Lower Class, Western/“Newer” South vs. Eastern/“Older” South to name a few major distinctions.

[Alcibiades]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

NC rural whites are still noticeably more Democratic than their counterparts in SC, MS and AL, if I’m not mistaken.

[StateBoiler]

I've said forever Florida is not part of "The South". The South/rest of Florida border line is probably somewhere around Orlando.

[Sol]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

NC rural whites are still noticeably more Democratic than their counterparts in SC, MS and AL, if I’m not mistaken.

Yes, and IIRC that's true of their counterparts in Virginia/Arkansas/Tennessee too.

[Alcibiades]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

NC rural whites are still noticeably more Democratic than their counterparts in SC, MS and AL, if I’m not mistaken.

Yes, and IIRC that's true of their counterparts in Virginia/Arkansas/Tennessee too.

NC is noteable though as it’s got a higher rural black population than those three (usually correlated with more Republican white voting).

[Sol]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

NC rural whites are still noticeably more Democratic than their counterparts in SC, MS and AL, if I’m not mistaken.

Yes, and IIRC that's true of their counterparts in Virginia/Arkansas/Tennessee too.

NC is noteable though as it’s got a higher rural black population than those three (usually correlated with more Republican white voting).

There's a decently high rural Black population in Virginia too actually.

This election saw big swings in a lot of areas where whites traditionally had stayed more loyal to the Dems (except the Mountains), so we'll see how long this distinction lasts.


In some counties already (i.e. Richmond) the results now look like counties in Alabama with an extremely close parallel between race and voting tallies. Richmond actually voted for Obama twice!

[lfromnj]

Historically the general rule of thumb wrt: voting patterns of white rural lowland southern voters has been that the further north one goes, the more Democratic. This is somewhat less true now, but still remains accurate to some extent.

NC rural whites are still noticeably more Democratic than their counterparts in SC, MS and AL, if I’m not mistaken.

Yes, and IIRC that's true of their counterparts in Virginia/Arkansas/Tennessee too.

NC is noteable though as it’s got a higher rural black population than those three (usually correlated with more Republican white voting).

There's a decently high rural Black population in Virginia too actually.

This election saw big swings in a lot of areas where whites traditionally had stayed more loyal to the Dems (except the Mountains), so we'll see how long this distinction lasts.


In some counties already (i.e. Richmond) the results now look like counties in Alabama with an extremely close parallel between race and voting tallies. Richmond actually voted for Obama twice!

Yeah I would say the first signs of rural racial depolarization start somewhere in the the tidewater region in VA?

[Del Tachi]

Yes, a huge difference that mostly originates with the Lowland "Deep South"/Upland "Appalachian" divide that is the primary regional cleavage from Arkansas to Maryland

The premise of your question shows you do not appreciate this distinction, however, because you've boiled everything down to the White/Black racial mix.  There are no 30% Black towns in East Tennessee, nor 70% White towns in the MS Delta, for example.  That should be enough to tip you off to a major cultural difference between the two regions.