Maybe the south has had enough of the north and those who come down here pushing their fecal agenda, their liberal agenda.
Had one poster last night tell me VA and FL are not southern, I know very bizarre FL also took all the ballot questions including marriage and went conservative but obama was supposed ot have won here, no way did he fairly.
In the FWIW's department, when I was growing up and attending school in Alabama we never thought of Florida as a southern state. We thought it was what it was: a gathering spot for Yankee retirees. Hasn't changed, either.
Given the increased numbers of Northerners who are moving into northern Virginia (I understand that Fairfax County--adjacent to Washington--has over a million residents now), Virginia is becoming less and less of a Southern state.
VA is rapidly growing, with most of the growth in the northern part of the state and based very largely on DC government jobs and lobbying. Not hard to see why it would drift away from conservative principles.
FL is very different in different parts of the state.
Central FL (outside Orlando), the panhandle and Jacksonville are still Southern.
Tampa Bay area and Orlando are really more like southern CA than anything else. They're inhabited mostly by people from somewhere else.
SW Florida, Fort Myers and such, and SE coast north of Miami is retirees from all over, many NE liberals.
Miami itself is Latin American more than southern.
The reason that most of the “real” South doesn’t claim Florida is because it is full of snow birds from up North, Mexicans and Cubans. I grew up there from age 2 to age 13 due to severe asthma and not able to live in TN until I was older. No good meds at that time. There is nothing Southern about Florida. In fact, I was even bullied due to my Southern accent. Yes, I lived there but my Southern roots ran deep with a father from Chattanooga and a lot of time in summers in Chattanooga with my grandparents. We moved back to TN in 1968 and I never looked back. I’ve only been to Florida on vacation once in 44 years.
No way I would give up my TN mountain home for Florida!