http://news.yahoo.com/solid-south-no...120434688.html

ATLANTA (AP) — The "Solid South" was a political fact, benefiting Democrats for generations and then Republicans, with Bible Belt and racial politics ruling the day.
But demographic changes and recent election results reveal a more nuanced landscape now as the two major parties prepare for their national conventions. Republicans will convene Aug. 27 in Florida, well established as a melting-pot battleground state, to nominate Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Democrats will toast President Barack Obama the following week in North Carolina, the perfect example of a Southern electorate not so easily pigeon-holed.
Why is it when I tell people the Republicans are doomed because immigrants vote Democrat, I get shocked looks, but when it's presented as a good thing, it's okay.

Some gems:

"The transformation of the South seems to never end," said Mo Elleithee, a Democratic campaign consultant with deep experience in Virginia and federal elections. "Now it's beginning to emerge, at least parts of it, as solidly purple."
New citizens, birth rates, and migration patterns of native-born Americans make high-growth areas less white, less conservative or both. There is increasing urban concentration in many areas. African-American families are moving back to the South after generations in Chicago, New York or other northern cities.
Republican Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a former national party chairman and two-term governor, said the demographics are important but can be overemphasized. He acknowledged GOP concerns that Hispanics will vote Obama in proportions Romney cannot overcome "if the election for them is only about immigration."
Virginia grew from 7 million people to 8 million from 2000 to 2010, according to the census. North Carolina went from 8 million to 9.5 million. Both states were 65 percent white, a drop from 72 percent in each state. Native North Carolinians made up 58.6 percent of the population, a proportion that topped 70 percent two decades ago. Virginia is now half transient or immigrant.
Whether the Republicans become un-electable isn't very important: they only differ on allowing corporations more power and the rich less taxes.

What struck me is this never-ending 'transformation' as is the new status quo which is to be accepted. But how can a place maintain its distinct character when half of the population wasn't even born in the state of Virginia?

If someone had written a science-fiction novel about the world today a century ago, people wouldn't have believed it actually possible I'm sure. The inmates have taken over. After reading this article and the one about the 'pansexual' hispanic politician in Texas courtesy of another poster, I think I've had enough 'news' for one day.