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/* The "Solid South" */
==The "Solid South"==
From the end of the Civil War to the 1960 election, the "Solid South" as political pundits called it, nearly always supported Democratic candidates. The Solid South began to break down in the 1964 election, when Republican Barry Goldwater carried five southern states. In 1968, the region split (with the exception of Texas) its electoral votes between Republican candidate Richard Nixon and Independent George Wallace. Since the 1972 election, candidates Richard Nixon (1972), Jimmy Carter (1976), Ronald Reagan (1984), George H.W. Bush (1988), Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996) and George W. Bush (2000 and 2004) carried every Southern state. In 1980, Ronald Reagan carried every southern state except Georgia. In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton carried some southern states.
A large numbers of southerners have served in the U.S. military. Ironically, the one war where southerners did not volunteer in large numbers was the Civil War. Approximately twenty percent of all Confederate soldiers were draftees (compared to eight percent in the Union armies), and they were subject to “compulsory reenlistment.”
