Via Eric Alterman, here's an interesting an article on Southern racism by Rick Perlstein that does two interesting things. First it cites a study by Nicholas Valentino and David Sears that a regression analysis shows that racist candidates are more likely to win in the South. I think there's a flaw in this analysis, but it's still interesting. Second, it attempts to find the precise moment at which middle America became defined as the authentic part of America.