DOES REGIONAL CULTURE AFFECT VOTING?

DOES REGIONAL CULTURE AFFECT VOTING? As I posted on here, ever since the 1960 election in which the Democrat Kennedy carried most of the states that the Republican Dewey had carried in 1948 and the Republican Nixon carried most of the states that the Democrat Truman had carried 12 years earlier, I have considered regional culture to be important in voting. The thought is that, for example, Midwesterners are more comfortable with a Nixon or a Truman even if only because their styles are like those of people they encounter every day. Michael Lind had an article in Salon (March 13) (link via Realclearpolitics) which states this theory very well. He says: “Regional political culture is a powerful independent force, not a mere reflection of the numbers of particular demographic groups in particular territories.” For example: “Latinos in Texas vote differently than Latinos in California. Scholars have established that members of the same religions — Protestants, Catholics and Jews — tend to be more socially conservative in the South than in other parts of the country.” In addition to the examples (which include a comparison of Barrack Obama’s regional appeal to that of Hillary Clinton), Lind cites a number of books which take this approach, including David Hackett Fischer’s ALBION’S SEED: FOUR BRITISH FOLKWAYS IN AMERICA.