The firewall between progressive policies that would benefit most conservative states much more than liberal areas and Republican voters is religion. The Republican party, seeing the failure of their message and goals in the ’60s, made an unholy alliance with both the hard-line white supremacists and the religious leadership in the south, guaranteeing them both a place at the table in perpetuity.

This, of course, was made considerably easier by the fact that the two overlapped generally. The John Birch society, mostly headed up by wealthy evangelical Christians and devout racists, was more than happy to have a major political party volunteer to have their back against the JFK wing of the Democratic party that was pushing integration in their schools and workplaces and equal voting rights for blacks. They managed, by ’68, to break the hold traditional Democrats had on the south and none of them ever looked back.

There are still families in the south who are generations deep as registered Democrats but have never cast a non-Republican vote because they follow the guidance of their pastors. They didn’t even skip a beat when they were told to vote for the most decadent and non-religious candidate in history in ’16 and many fully believe Trump is a God sent Messiah. That’s a level of ignorant delusion that won’t be easily countered with logic.