Miles, what happened with Acadiana?? Yes, we all know it's very conservative socially, but it refused to go for Goldwater in 1964 and went for Johnson even after Civil Rights Act. And that - at the time when North Louisiana parishes from Caddo to East Carroll went 80-85% (in some cases, like Claiborne - 89%) Goldwater. Acadiana was mainly segregationist, but not so fiercely segregationist in the past... Abortions? "Gay marriage"? Guns? Environment? What???
Acadiana always had higher particpation of blacks in politics than the rest of the south. Through the late 1800's, while black partipication in south was in single-digits, it was usually at least 10-15% higher in Acadiana. The political culture of the Catholics was more tolerant of multiraciailism.
In 1964, I know that the political machines played a big part in delivering the region for Goldwater. Claiborne Parish, for example, was an infamous segrationist strongold. If you go just north to AR, you were pretty much back to LBJ landslides.
My own experiences in the region are pretty limited. I have family in Lake Charles, where I've been to a few times. Still, I've had conversations with
educated people there who were still skeptical that Obama was born in America! What I've noticed generally, too, in the region, is a rise in evanlegical non-Catholic denomiations. That might be another factor which is pushing Acadiana to behave like the rest of the deep south.
Here's a pretty neat read touching on this. What might most impressive in this whole equation was that the south stayed Democratic as long as it did.
