optimism or the view that you deserve what you get. But I think a huge reason for it, besides the difficulties of throwing off racial inequalities (which oddly enough are illustrative of the point that the system is unfairly rigged), is religion. The south's predominance of fiery, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps religion and its interest in preserving the political status quo, is a huge influencer when it comes to southerners considering an issue. It limits their thinking, particularly in predominately white churches. Black churches have obviously been a driver in ending official segregation, but I would argue that they are not part of the southern power structure and too often even they encourage people to keep their place. Too many of them of all colors encourage the thinking that gifts flow from God and that God rewards those who believe. Obviously, when you can't separate faith from political concerns, then changing people's minds becomes exponentially harder.

I'd love to see some more data about this. The Times article doesn't provide it. I did read a fascinating book recently, "One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America," which provided some very interesting insights into how, in the aftermath of the New Deal and WWII, corporate interests allied with specific religious leaders (Abraham Vereide, Norman Vincent Peale, Billy Graham) to influence political power, especially during the Eisenhower administration. They each did it for their own purposes, but their influence is clear and it is deep. I think this influence is especially strong in the south, which already had a religious tradition that supported the power structure following the Civil War. Combine that with the nose-to-the-grindstone Scotch-Irish traditions (JoeyWahoo recommended on this board and excellent insight in the book, "Deer Hunting with Jesus") prevalent in the south and with 24-hour conservative talk shows, not to mention the new invention of social media, and the conditions are ripe to keep political power concentrated in the hands of the few.