My Virginia

This last election was very painful for me to watch . It signifies the beginning of the end for Virginia. At least the one that I knew. I am sitting here thinking back to when I was a teenager in the 1990's. Fairfax and Loudoun County were deep red Republican.  We were a safe bet for wholesome candidates.  Marriage was believed to be between one man and one woman. Those wonderful , carefree golden days, when Virginia was conservative and Evangelical Christian   . The "swamp" was barely a puddle then. Virginia was largely comprised of White and Black voters. Never in my wildest dreams would I believe socialist friendly candidates could have a hope of winning in Virginia.  It was a good time for Virginia. But the D.C. swamp slowly began to rise, and it overflowed at the crevices of decent civilization.  No one knew what we were in for. Fast forward to 2018.  Gone are the days of George Allen, Virgil Goode, and Jim Gilmore. Hordes of illegal immigrants...

It's easy to determine the obvious. There is no question that Mississippi is the South. Or Alabama, or South Carolina.  Or Georgia.  But there's the "Deep South", and then there's "The South"... That Mason Dixon line is a good start, but the closer you are to the line, the more ambiguous.  I made some maps here as to what I determine the area of predominant Southern culture to be. Instead of making a black and white chart of "North vs South", I include "transition zones"- those areas that are kind of the in between region, or some times "no  man's land". In my maps, notice only the Eastern 1/3 of the country is shaded in. I do not generally consider Texas or anything west of it to be "South". But it can be considered a transition area. Unlike most, I consider the Mid Atlantic region to be a sub region of the South, and not the Northeast.  For that reason, I feel some states can be both Southern and Mid Atla...