Here's a useful, brief analysis of the distinctions between the South and the rest of the US. Some of these points will apply to 2306 as dig into the cultural differences between Texas and the rest of the country. It also applies to 2305 since it touches on a recurrent theme in class - the emerging divisions within the Republican Party, especially those between southern Republicans and those from the rest of the nation.
Of course Texas is only partially southern, but the point applies. After having great influence on American politics for the past generation, is the allure of South fading? And is its cohesiveness marginalizing it from the rest of the nation?
Now the South is becoming isolated again. Every demographic and political trend that helped to reëlect Barack Obama runs counter to the region’s self-definition: the emergence of a younger, more diverse, more secular electorate, with a libertarian bias on social issues and immigration; the decline of the exurban life style, following the housing bust; the class politics, anathema to pro-business Southerners, that rose with the recession; the end of America’s protracted wars, with cuts in military spending bound to come. The Solid South speaks less and less for America and more and more for itself alone.This makes the South seem very static. that's a debatable point, but the general story the author tells is worth looking through.
Solidity has always been the South’s strength, and its weakness. The same Southern lock that once held the Democratic Party now divides the Republican Party from the socially liberal, fiscally moderate tendencies of the rest of America. The Southern bloc in the House majority can still prevent the President from enjoying any major legislative achievements, but it has no chance of enacting an agenda, and it’s unlikely to produce a nationally popular figure.