Reply #18: A few of us are smart enough to escape the fate, but

[StellaBlue]

...most white Southerners grow up, marry young, divorce young, remarry, have several kids, hunt deer, go to an evangelical church, parrot Rovian talking points, distrust Yankees/liberals/foreigners, hate gays/blacks/intellectualism, etc etc ad nauseum.

I am the ONLY person in my entire family, that I know of, who is an atheist and self-avowed liberal. Out of about 100 people I can think of. They grow up and keep poppin' 'em out, never leave their comfort zones, with no curiosity about the outside world.

As someone mentioned above, nonSoutherners relocating for economic reasons will likely help, but not always. I daresay many, many DUers from other regions would NOT consider moving to the South, for the reasons I described above. And I know several Yankee families in my hometown who are the most rabid Southern Baptists freaks in town. Maybe they were trying to overcompensate to fit in.