I mentioned Wilson as a step towards Republican/Democrat realignment. The alignment wasn’t purely a civil rights thing, it was also about coalitions. And he laid some important foundations to what became the administrative state and progressivism. He did some horrible stuff & “progressive” doesn’t always mean correct (eg eugenics was considered a part of the progressive movement at the time), and it’s not something we should honor. I only mentioned him as part of the coalition shifting. It shouldn’t be surprising that a racist Democrat (who also did things for the administrative state) was a bridge between the two eras.

As for post-Nixon, when I say “gradual” I mean that we’ll into the 90s and even 00s, there were still conservative Southerners that identified with Democrats. I agree they weren’t pushed out & I didn’t say the people were. It’s the ideas that were the inconsistencies in the coalitions. As everyone sorted more, the parties became further and further polarized, culminating in the South becoming deep red in places it used to be deep blue.