[2banana]

In 1961 we landed in New Orleans, deepest darkest Dixie, Red America with a vengeance.

In 1961, New Orleans (and all of Louisiana) was nearly 100% democrat blue...

[MamaB]

I was born in MS and at that time the whole South were democrats. I can remember when a Republican club was started in my hometown by the wife of a retired military guy. Before that, Republican was a dirty word. Don’t know why I turned out so very conservative. BTW, that club was started about 1970.

[Phoenix11]

In 1961, New Orleans (and all of Louisiana) was nearly 100% democrat blue...

Shhh.... we're making it up as we go along.

[BBell]

My neighbor was born and raised in New Orleans. He has been a registered democrat his whole life. When he was young you could not vote for your next local politician if you were not a Democrat. Not because Republicans were not allowed to vote but because we have closed primaries here and the Democratic primary was the actual election, as no republican, if there were one, stood a chance at all in the general election. Therefore you had to be a democrat to vote for the inevitable winner. You also had to be a Democrat if you ever expected to be elected.

BTW, my neighbor has never voted for a democrat for president in his 62 years.

[Does so]

In 1961 we landed in New Orleans, deepest darkest Dixie, Red America with a vengeance.

In 1961, I registered to vote as a Republican in Miami, Florida. I arrived at the polls with no Republicans to vote for—at any level!

BTW: We need something 'way different than "red state" to describe our collective philosophical bent.