what I find interesting though is why eastern Tennessee hasn't swung dem. I know that sounds preposterous but here is my reasoning: East Tennessee is similar to Vermont in the sense that it is largely mountainous, overwhelmingly white, anti-slavery/pro-union, and opposed to the south. When the south started becoming republican by the 90s, Vermont swung to the dems. What separated an area like VT from East Tennessee, which has state republican?
Read Albion's Seed. That book does a great job of explaining the different subcultures of white American society.
Vermont white people = descendants of Puritans from southern England; came to America feeling called to build a "city on a hill"; very Hamiltonian in outlook; favored a strong central government to promote morality (think the Salem witch trials), and later, in our more secular age, social justice and economic equality
East Tennessee white people = descendants of Scots-Irish farmers from Northern Ireland and northern England; came to America because they didn't have anything going for them in Britain; very Jeffersonian in outlook; suspicious of government, which they viewed as a vehicle for rich, powerful people to impose their will on them (by taxing them too much and trying to take their guns away)
Welcome to the forum! Interesting post...
