While neither the most racially diverse nor tolerant of places, the upper Midwest still had a strong Northern/Union identity when I was growing up there a few d

While neither the most racially diverse nor tolerant of places, the upper Midwest still had a strong Northern/Union identity when I was growing up there a few decades ago. Folks are socially and fiscally conservative, but that cultural identity coming out of the Civil War, the Grange, then the New Deal, and strong union membership post-WWII distinguish the region as purple, in contrast to the solid red of the South (which was formerly solid blue decades ago, in the Dixiecrat era, as no one wanted to vote for the party of Lincoln).