I'll just repost this for newcomers to the thread from an older post about the regional schism of the Democratic party between the New Deal progressives and the old Solid South conservatives:

This happened to the Democratic party in the 1940s. Open rebellion of the old southern conservative Democrats against the rapid shifting of the party platform that began during the New Deal. Integration, civil rights and other progressive policies left the Solid South with nowhere to turn. The Dixiecrats were a regional party that didn't last long in an official capacity, but they spent the next twenty years fighting for relevancy as a culturally conservative voting bloc. After LBJ's death blow with the Civil Rights Act, the Republicans picked up the tattered remains of the now dead and dying southern Democrats and began the southernization of the GOP with their alignment with the Moral Majority, and the rest is history.

Yeah, yeah, Senator Byrd. The exception that proves the rule. Some like him stayed behind to fight to the death. On the other side of the coin, moderate Yankee Republicans like Lincoln Chafee were forced to realign with the Democratic party due to his more liberal leaning policy stances no longer being suitable for the modern GOP.

When people like our friend in the parent comment talk about Democrats and the KKK intending to use it as a smear, they demonstrate a grave lack of understanding of well known, well documented events in American history. I assume they know this, but like the Dixiecrats, are holding onto their ideology for dear life as a survival mechanism.