So the south became a republican stronghold about the time the democrats adopted civil rights into their party correct?
there were a number of factors in the switch and I doubt anyone will agree on one root cause. the beginnings of the neoconservative movement with goldwater most likely broke republicans of their inclination toward government spending (at least pertaining to social programs), and the nascent leftist neoliberal movement that took hold among democrats favored way more federal-level intervention in both social and fiscal matters than I think many in the south were comfortable with.
A lot of cold-war Democrats switched party affiliation after LBJ (such as Donald Rumsfeld). JFK was arguably the last Democrat who was a strong supporter of our military and who took a firm position on national defense. This issue as well is one that repels DNC support among residents of the South. More volunteers in our military come from the South than from any other region.
About 80% of those in our military polled oppose Obama's military policy.
And that trend is quantifiable going back a long way. In the 2000 election, Al Gore's legal team wanted to exclude military absentee ballots (that overwhelmingly support the GOP) from the re-count for precisely that reason.
