I think Tennessee has always been conservative but the problem has been with the “I was born a Democrat and I will die a Democrat” generation that voted Democrat regardless of how vile they are. They are conservative Democrats that typically are pro-life and religious. Some of them are starting to cross lines and vote their morals rather than party since they have come to realize, with BO, how vile liberal Democrats really are. Some are not though but I expect they will eventually. A man I work with was talking about how the pastor at his Southern Baptist Church preached one morning on our obligations to vote out the Democrats and their anti-God policies. He was mad because politics was being discussed in church. The thing that really bothered him was when the pastor said that, in this day and time, a Christian can’t be a Christian and a Democrat. :-) I asked him if he was pro-life and he said yes. I asked him if he believed in limited government and he said yes. I asked him his beliefs in other Conservative policies and he answered yes to all of them. I told him he was a Conservative. He said he was born a Democrat and that’s how he votes. [sigh]
He’s still not there yet but a lot are.
Your are right on the money.
You might remind him of Ronald Reagan’s famous statement: “I didn’t leave the Democratic part - it left me!”