Reply #62: Obviously it's not just the south

[RainDog]

but Nixon's southern strategy and the democrat's passage of the civil rights act is an important part of the electoral equation.

Reagan's FCC ruling that allowed Fox News to flourish is another problem.

as is the pandering to extreme right wing groups by the republicans (c.f. Chip Berlet: Old Nazis, New Right, and the Republican Party...another Reagan legacy.)

as is the history of the CIA, that recruited Nazis for intel. and, because of Rudolph Gehlen, believed the most far right propaganda about the Soviets and set us on a course that empowered the John Birchers of American society, along with a defense industry that sucks the federal budget that could go to programs to enhance the lives of Americans, in areas such as education and a social safety net for its least enfranchised.

religious fundamentalism could not flourish in a nation that recognized it for the anti-intellectual, anti-enlightenment doctrine that it is, and talked about this on national tv, rather than having "concerned women of america" as talk show guests.