Which southern states are the most libertarian?

[rebeltarian]

Looking at voting patterns in the south, for many years Republicans could occasionally pick off border states like KY and TN (Ike, Nixon in '60).  Then Democrats lost the deep south and now they can only hope to pick off the border states.  The upper south is more white and more poor, but what causes these voting patterns?  Are some regions of appalachia very libertarian/republican?  What states would a more fiscally conservative, classical libertarian Republican Party be the most competitive in?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

lol

[Franzl]

lol

^^^^

Someone has no idea what he's talking about.

[rebeltarian]

Well forgive me if I sound ignorant, but I am a long ways from the south.  I do know that the upper south seems to vote more for economic reasons (poor whites, coal miner unions, etc) and the deep south for cultural reasons (whites pited against blacks).  Most of the south is pretty rural, so I'm guessing there's a lot of people, regardless of color, who'd like to just be left alone.  Are the deep southern states more authoritarian?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Well forgive me if I sound ignorant, but I am a long ways from the south.  I do know that the upper south seems to vote more for economic reasons (poor whites, coal miner unions, etc) and the deep south for cultural reasons (whites pited against blacks).  Most of the south is pretty rural, so I'm guessing there's a lot of people, regardless of color, who'd like to just be left alone.  Are the deep southern states more authoritarian?

Oh, just ignore Franzl, he's a major pain in the ass    Welcome BTW. 

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Alabama must be the most libertarian

Unless, of course, you are:
1. Black
2. Liberal
3. Other race
4. Communist
5. Atheist
6. Carpetbagger
7. Homo
8. Anarchist
9. Socialist
...
99999. Foreigner

[Franzl]

Well forgive me if I sound ignorant, but I am a long ways from the south.  I do know that the upper south seems to vote more for economic reasons (poor whites, coal miner unions, etc) and the deep south for cultural reasons (whites pited against blacks).  Most of the south is pretty rural, so I'm guessing there's a lot of people, regardless of color, who'd like to just be left alone.  Are the deep southern states more authoritarian?

Well Appalachia, I'd argue, is precisely the opposite of libertarian. Appalachians support unions, they support high minimum wage laws, they're populist. Add to that a certain cultural feeling and scepticism of social liberalism.

The Deep South is also not libertarian. The Deep South would perhaps best be described as theocratic. A majority of voters there wish to impose their religious beliefs on the entire population. This year there's a guy running for the Republican nomination in Alabama that wants to ban mosques, for example, under the pretense that Muslim immigrants should become good Americans.

Economically? Low taxes. Low taxes. Low taxes. They couldn't care less about true fiscal conservatism or balanced budgets.

Foreign policy? Bomb Iran!

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

Well pretty much all of the deep and outer South is very socially conservative, but I think Alabama's pretty fiscally conservative. (I just dug up an article where John Sparkman (D-AL) was very hesitant to vote for Medicare, and when he announced support for it, many thought that was the "OK" and it was fiscally prudent.)

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/8/0/7/9/p380794_index.html
(Sparkman article.)

Also, most of the House & Senate's Conservative Coalition were made up of Republicans and Southern Democrats.

[nclib]

The only areas in the South that would lean libertarian (by that I mean more libertarian than populist, even if the area is better described on a left-right axis) would be the Atlanta suburbs, non-Appalachian Virginia, non-Hispanic west Texas, and possibly the west Coast of south Fla.

That said, the south is largely economically conservative - it just that southerners tend to be less outspoken on economic issues than social issues.

[Bo]

Maybe Virginia or North Carolina.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Tennessee, Virginia, and Texas

This in comparison to the rest of the South, not in general terms.

[jokerman]

Possibly Florida.  It doesn't even have an income tax.

States like Alabama and Virginia aren't really more libertarian.  Yeah, they had a stronger GOP presence earlier than some of the rest of the south, but that's more due to historical circumstances.  In terms of ideology at most you saw a suburban whiggism develop in the new south that manifested as GOP support; that's not really libertarian.

These days you see a strong anti-tax and anti-welfare sentiment.  This is the angry white man, the direct descendent of George Wallace's constituency.  Their wives are more likely to be strictly evangelical voters, putting cultural/family issues first, or independents.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Possibly Florida.  It doesn't even have an income tax.

States like Alabama and Virginia aren't really more libertarian.  Yeah, they had a stronger GOP presence earlier than some of the rest of the south, but that's more due to historical circumstances.  In terms of ideology at most you saw a suburban whiggism develop in the new south that manifested as GOP support; that's not really libertarian.

These days you see a strong anti-tax and anti-welfare sentiment.  This is the angry white man, the direct descendent of George Wallace's constituency.  Their wives are more likely to be strictly evangelical voters, putting cultural/family issues first, or independents.

Florida has some of the most authoritarian policies in the country...

It's property and sales taxes are above average, it has the worst gun laws in the South, and it has among the worst marijuana laws in the country.

[MK]

VA or like someone mentioned parts of ATL .. I should know.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     This is like asking which SSR was the freest & most democratic. Maybe Virginia, but even that state is pretty amicable to ultra-populist politicians.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Libertarians seem to do well in rural west Texas (relative to the rest of the nation) and the middle-class suburbs of cities like Birmingham, Atlanta, and Houston have historically supported very economically libertarian Congressmen (Larry McDonald, Ron Paul, etc.)

[Bono]

Possibly Florida.  It doesn't even have an income tax.

States like Alabama and Virginia aren't really more libertarian.  Yeah, they had a stronger GOP presence earlier than some of the rest of the south, but that's more due to historical circumstances.  In terms of ideology at most you saw a suburban whiggism develop in the new south that manifested as GOP support; that's not really libertarian.

These days you see a strong anti-tax and anti-welfare sentiment.  This is the angry white man, the direct descendent of George Wallace's constituency.  Their wives are more likely to be strictly evangelical voters, putting cultural/family issues first, or independents.

Florida has some of the most authoritarian policies in the country...

It's property and sales taxes are above average, it has the worst gun laws in the South, and it has among the worst marijuana laws in the country.

Worst gun laws in the South? LOL.

Even if you don't count Maryland as part of the South, North Carolina is way worse.

[memphis]

The South is only conservative in that people here don't like paying taxes. Like everybody else, Southerners love pork. This is especially true in plaeces like suburban Atlanta, which is hugely dependent on the government to provide new infrastructure to the hordes of GOP voters.

[phk]

Texas.

[King]

     This is like asking which SSR was the freest & most democratic. Maybe Virginia, but even that state is pretty amicable to ultra-populist politicians.

Hungary was the freest nation in the Eastern bloc.

There's obviously no libertarian state in the South, although a few cities might be open to such idealism (Austin, Dallas, Chapel Hill), but still not enough to label them "libertarian."

[Bo]

Florida, I guess.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Florida isn't remotely libertarian on anything. Besides not having a state income tax I guess. On everything else it is hardcore authoritarian. Minnesota is probably more libertarian overall than Florida.