People talk about "the switch" as if every Democrat supported slavery and every Republican was an abolitionist. And that's not even close to the truth. The tru

People talk about "the switch" as if every Democrat supported slavery and every Republican was an abolitionist. And that's not even close to the truth. The truth is that there were plenty of Democrats who were abolitionists. And while the Republican party was originally formed as an abolitionist party, by the 1960's, there was a non-zero number of Republicans who probably would have supported slavery. Because the true divide is North and South. Northern Democrats were often abolitionists. They were just outnumbered by Southern Democrats. If you divide the votes by region rather than party, you'll often see the vast majority of Southern votes have been against civil rights. To get the Southern vote, you may not have to be a racist, but you have to be at least comfortable with it existing in your constituency. Because while racists may not be the majority, they comprise a large enough faction that their support can sway elections.