One Reason Alabama Likes Roy

[struggle4progress]

By Justin Fox
November 17, 2017, 2:00 PM EST

As a former resident .. I can attest that people there are friendly and welcoming. As a student of .. history, I can also attest that they seem .. prone .. to vote for politicians whose chief selling point is resentment and fear of others ...

... I started assembling demographic .. data ... I settled instead on .. the percentage of people living in a state who were born in that state ...

Nationwide, for example, the percentage of the population that's born in state generally declines or at least holds even with age -- which makes sense, given that older people have had more time to move. Not in Alabama!

Older Alabama residents are likelier than younger adults in the state, and much likelier than older residents of other states, to be living in the state where they were born. And .. Alabama voters 65 and older appear to form the core of Roy Moore's support. As a 70-year-old native of Gadsden .. he's one of them ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-17/one-key-reason-alabama-likes-roy-moore

[charlyvi]

1. I must be the exception that proves the rule.

Age 66, born here, still hate the perverted son of a bitch.

(Although I did live 36 years in Chicago.....).

[maxsolomon]

2. they are also so thoroughly propagandized

by conservative Christianity and GOP media that even their politicians believe their own bullshit.

it's not cynicism or exploitation; they genuinely believe that Dems are evil, trying to destroy (white) America, and trying to kill God.

little do they know, God is already dead.

[misanthrope]

3. As a lifelong Alabamian for a half-century-plus

I can tell you things here haven't changed as much as most residents would like others to believe. It is a sociologist's playground, the feedback loop created by the culture is a textbook example of a system in which fear, xenophobia, tribalism and authoritarianism work in lockstep.

[lindysalsagal]

4. ....Sounds lovely.....