What Guass said.
The Democrats will play fine in the South as soon as the "upscale suburbanites" take over.
Just imagine what Georgia and Virginia will be voting like when Tennessee and Alabama become just as cosmopolitan as Georgia is today.
I agree that as a state becomes more cosmopolitan, it will probably become more Democratic, but it seems like there are some outliers.
Though there are upscale suburbanites that are Republican.......Forsyth County, GA, Shelby County, AL, and especially Colin County, TX are examples. In general, more upscale suburbanites means a better environment for Dems, as shown by NoVA and the Research triangle. Yet this same trend does not seem to be occurring in Texas, which is pretty cosmopolitan in its suburbs.
This is why even though upscale suburbanites are the best long term hope for Southern Dems, I think they should also focus on working class whites. Thus, if the upscale suburbanites do not change their voting patterns as much as projected in states like Alabama or Tennessee, the Dems could still win by having a broad coalition.
Its somewhat of a paradox in electoral geography that wealthy
people tend to vote Republican while wealthy
places tend to vote Democrat. It will take the South becoming a wealthier place in order for the Democrats to take hold, and I think that we're well on the way to seeing that already.
