The Ghosts of Political Leanings

Cool title, and some pretty cool insights. The fact that they come from an Open Borders, pro-war Neocon (he even concludes with a quote from Abraham Lincoln!) makes these observations even more fascinating -- and revealing:

To understand changes in the political map, we naturally tend to look for contemporary explanations. But American political alignments are not written on an empty slate. Beginnings matter, and the civic personalities of states tend to reflect the cultural folkways of their first settlers.

Or, as my great-aunt used to say, "You don't get past your raising." It's true with people, and it's true of states. Barone pretty much echoes Grady McWhinney and David Hackett Fischer:

The other area in which McCain is running even with or better than Bush is the set of states settled by the Scots-Irish stock who thronged to the Appalachians in colonial days and whose descendants followed the southwest path pioneered by their hero Andrew Jackson. Barack Obama, who has lived in university communities all his adult life, did very poorly in primaries here. McCain, a career military man, runs ahead of Bush in Tennessee and Arkansas and about even in Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma. He's running further behind in West Virginia only because Bush ran especially well there.

So now even the Neocons are noticing the increasing importance of heritage and ethnicity as American identity continues to dissolve in a sea of multiculturalism. And taking its place is the resurgence of the real, echoing that lesson of history William Faulkner captured so well.