To understand this, you need to freshen up history of the South prior to president Lyndon B. Johnson (D). The South had been markedly, almost religiously, Democrat since Reconstruction, that is, since the end of the US Civil War.
This was a very different Democrat party than cripples the country today. The southern Democrats were liberal in some ways, conservative is some ways, and many of them were deeply offensive in some ways such as racism. But they were *not* radical leftists, of the type that could be found in the northeast of the US.
In two successive elections, in 1968 and 1972, the northeastern liberals first crippled the southern Democrats, and then pushed them entirely out of the power structure of the Democrat party.
The northeastern liberals thought they had done so with the election of JFK, but with his death, LBJ, a Texan, became president, and being a southerner stole the radical leftist ascendancy and returned it to the South. So they spent most of his term trying to undermine him, to the point where he refused to run for reelection.
The first coup attempt was then in 1968, where the radical left put forth Hubert Humphrey, who was a northerner, if not from the northeast, and philosophically supportive of the radicals agenda. That was so offensive to southerners that they split the party, and ran George Wallace as their candidate.
This threw the election to Republican Richard Nixon. But from that point, the radicals decided to purge the South from the Democratic leadership ranks. Importantly, it should be remembered that even stripped of power, the southern Democrat leaders remained Democrats.
The Dixiecrat leaders who split from the party remained with the party, with one, and only one, prominent defection: Strom Thurmond, who became a Republican. And the Dixiecrat leaders, proud defenders of segregation, remained Democrats to their dying day.
Finally, in the 1972 presidential election, the coup was completed, the northern radicals completely controlled the Democrat party, and have since shunned southern Democrats and their ideas.
With all that as background, the fractured southern Democrat rank and file no longer had a political party, and finding conservatism much more appealing than radical leftism, they have migrated to a new home in the Republican party.
Importantly, the most vile parts of the southern Democrats could never abide conservatism, so have remained behind as Democrats, concealing their true feelings and thoughts under a veneer of radicalism.
Not a real bad stream-of-conciousness interpretation of history, but you really need to re-think this line “So they spent most of his term trying to undermine him (LBJ), to the point where he refused to run for reelection.”
Reality:
LBJ was so unpopular because of his war, he knew he could not win his own primary - exactly as Truman was primaried out 16 years before because of his own war in Korea.
Your post is, for the most part, accurate.
I was born in Atlanta in 1952 and it was still the “Solid South” where you would vote for a yellow dog as long as he was running as a Democrat. (thus the term)
It was extraordinarily hard for a people who have voted ‘Democrat’ for generation after generation to finally give up and join the “enemy” camp.
The first Republican governor of Georgia wasn’t elected until 2002 and if anyone wants to call Zell Miller a liberal.....well....be my guest.
And let’s not forget the Al Gore of 1988. He was pro-life and loved that tobacco that he grew and suckered...blah, blah, blah.
Rick Perry gets a pass, and barring any revelation that has yet to surface, he probably gets my vote as well.