The democratic party of the old south was not as monolithic as many around here would like to believe. Within that party you did have segregationists, but you also had common, salt of the earth southern folk who had no interest in slavery, segregation, or racism. Problem was that both of these groups perceived an electoral threat from the northern states, which tended to have higher populations and thus more seats in congress. So rather than let one region of the country dictate policy, the factions in southern politics came together under one party. It's easy to associate southerners with racism because of this, but that don't make it so.
That's also a deceptive view of history. You can't separate out a few segregationists from a mass "who had no interest in slavery, segregation, or racism."
Sure, a lot of Southerners were just "voting Southern" or voting against the "Yankees," but the problem is that "Our Southern Way of Life" or "Our Civilization" covered a lot of ground, very much including (depending on the era) slavery, segregation, and White supremacy.
However, things change. The segregationists are largely gone, and fiscal conservatives have moved to the republican party while social liberals have moved to the dem party. Southerners quickly saw that the republicans were far more amenable to their ideas and joined the R's in great numbers, now unencumbered by any segregationists. It's too bad that most of the population is too damned stupid to see that, however. [Emphasis added]
What are you talking about? I really doubt a majority of the United States population has serious prejudices or preconceptions concerning today's South or about Southern Republicans. I'd hope they'd take exception to kooks and fringe elements lying about history, but I doubt our fellow citizens deserve to be called "stupid."