From a “deckerd”, in a partisan message board that I look at relatively infrequently. (I do have about 20 posts accumulated over a span of two and a half years. I find the discussions a bit… echo chambered.)
The blue area between the southern tip of Illinois and New Orleans covers at least half of the area known as the Mississippi Delta, a gigantic, drained swamp once covered in plantations (and home of the blues). The Delta was once 80% slaves in population and is today a dustbowl of pollution and over-fertilization.
(My father grew up on a farm in Northern LA, where the surpassing racism of white inhabitants has kept the tide of blue from washing south to New Orleans powered by disenfranchised black voters. Notice the difference on the ARk/LA border? As recently as 2000, a National Geographic reporter went hitch-hiking through the Delta and reported back that “the coming race war” was the #1 most popular topic amongst the white farmers and fishermen he met.)
2. South Carolina – Dem support isn’t coastal. Instead, it’s one county inland.
The Black Belt (the giant crescent of blue that runs from Alabama to SC) ends in South Carolina, but actually the entire Coastal Plain in South Carolina and Georgia (the area south and east of that crescent) was once a drained swamp, just like the Delta and the vast majority of residents were ex-slaves on rice plantations, including the Gullah people of the Sea Islands. The coasts have now been overrun by millionaire estates and the Sea Islands have literally been ethnically cleansed of Gullah farmers and fishermen who had lived for centuries on land which Sherman had given to them, this land was repatriated to the plantation owners by subsequent Republican presidents after Lincoln died and the descendents of the plantation owners have sold the entire Sea Islands out from under them to build “gated communities” that are walled off from the remaining Gullah-owned communities (really just hamlets on land that were once given over to the slaves as commons, or Freedmen’s Villages). They can’t even leave the island on the car ferry unless they live or work in one of the (essentially white only) gated communities, because the developers own the ferries. That is why the lowlands of the Carolinas are solidly blue EXCEPT for the coastal areas.
The Black Belt Actually extends all the way to northern MS. It’s that crescent of blue.
It is actually a geological feature which is named (allegedly) after the rich black soil found in the region.
It is a giant alluvial fan skirting the roots of the Appalachian Mountains, (the southern end of Appalachia is in North-Eastern Alabama).
Cotton Plantations cover(ed) the entire area, and white sharecroppers couldn’t afford the land.
Other proof that Geography = Destiny:
Why is Half of WV Blue and the other half Red? Why is eastern Tennessee and Western VA Red? It’s always been that way. The “Great Valley” is another continuous geological feature populated entirely by a certain group, Germans and Scots Irish Revolutionary War veterans who revolted against Washington. The area along the Great Valley is a series of parallel ridges and valleys running from Alabama to the Delaware River (NJ border). The Great Valley itself extends all the way from Alabama to Lake Champlain in VT. It is unobstructed by any hills or ranges.
Because these valleys are so unobstructed they were rapidly settled by a single group, disgruntled sharecroppers and ex-indentured servants after the Rev. War. Their descendants are rabidly Republican of the old school, libertarian/xenophobic/right to work type. The Great Valley in WV, MD, and PA is the home base for the northeastern KKK; the Cumberland Gap is part of the Valley which connects Tennessee to Virginia and is the home base for the Southern Baptist convention.
The low-lying Appalachian Plateau to the west is much more rugged and was settled by miners and European Immigrants. It is heavily unionized in parts, while other parts are simply isolated. No valleys or continuous geographical features connect the various counties and hollows to each other demographically but this area (centered on the Ohio River valley between Pittsburgh, PA and the VA/Kentucky border) is traditionally heavily unionized and old-school, populist Democratic.
This is the area where mountaintop removal has hurt Dems tremendously as a wedge issue because there is no flat land there, few jobs, and few environmentalists. Unfortunate because mountaintop removal is tremendously destructive.
Interesting fact: all the “peaks” in the Appalachian coal mining areas are the same elevation. If you go to the top the horizon looks flat. Most of Appalachia is a heavily eroded plateau, not a mountain range. It’s actually more rugged because it’s so heavily eroded.
The mountains proper, and the Great Valley on the eastern side of the Appalachians are home to rugged Republican mountain folk who still hate Roosevelt for kicking them out of Shenendoah National Park.
