What drives me crazy is how today's Democratic Party ignores the South, writing it off as dumb rednecks. The Democratic Party can win over not just southern minorities and youth, but even southern whites. Let's not forget that the South voted for FDR, Truman, Carter, Clinton, and even part of it voted for Obama.
The idea that the South simply shifted to the GOP after 1964 ignores the following decades of Democratic rule in the South. It wasn't until 1995 that most Southern congressmen were Republicans (by a slim majority) and it wasn't until 2003 that most Southern governors were Republican. It wasn't until 2003 that Georgia had its first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. And it wasn't until 2010's shellacking that Democrats lost most southern state legislatures.
The reason why even after 1964 so many Southerners kept voting Democratic was because the Democratic Party was more diverse ideologically, and because it never kowtowed to Wall Street and big business the way the GOP has. Furthermore, the Democratic Party has always taken a more proactive approach to helping those in need. George Wallace and Orval Faubus were monsters, but they were fiscal liberals, modernizing Georgia's healthcare system and Arkansas' education system respectively. Take out social issues, they would easily fit in among progressives today.
Republicans have done a horrible job serving their constituents. They campaign on three bullshit issues: God, gays, and guns. They don't lift a finger for economic revival. But for many people in the South, you have a party that ignores you (Democrats) and a party that only pays attention to you for bullshit issues (Republicans) and many choose the GOP for that reason. Democrats need to retake the South by focusing less on identity politics, getting out of the urban, northern bubbles, and focusing on taking a proactive approach to serving the people. That's the Democratic Party principles that kept the South Democratic for years to come.
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