When my wife and I moved to Georgia in 1979, it was dominated by Democrats. In fact, the President of the United States was Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from the Peach State of Georgia.

Today, all the major offices in Georgia are held by Republicans. An interesting factoid, Michelle Nunn, the daughter of Democrat Senator Sam Nunn is running for the Senate and Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy Carter, is running for governor. They’re hoping to revive the glory days of the Democrat Party.

While the city of Atlanta remains solidly Democrat with its high African American population, almost everywhere else the Republican Party reigns.

Now we come to Texas. How did the Lone Star State become the bastion of conservatism that it is today?

William O’Connor takes a look at Robert Wuthnow’s Rough Country: How Texas Became America’s Most Powerful Bible-Belt State and concludes the deciding factor has been religion.

While a number of historians have put forth the claim that race and “wealthy individuals supporting the conservative movement who stand to benefit from an anti-government agenda” have been the motivating factor, Wuthnow comes to a different conclusion without dismissing these two factors.

Wuthnow widens “the lens and [shows] that the shift was due in large part to religion—that the electorate was shifting nearly a half-century before civil rights, and that the anti-government, anti-welfare mindset took root because of Texas’s particular brand of Christianity.”

“Protestants in Texas, particularly Southern Baptists, he argues, had traditionally held to three big religious tenets: evil was a real and present danger, self-help was essential, and liberty of conscience was of the utmost importance. All three could be traced to the Texan origin story, when religious institutions provided stability in a dangerous frontier, self-sufficiency was required, and the Mexican Catholic Church was seen as the oppressor.”

Morality was a big issue. It’s no surprise that morality is under assault throughout the United States. First, the public (government) schools have adopted moral relativism except when it comes to the State. Remember, public schools are government schools. They do the bidding of the State. Everything for the State and nothing against the State.

Second, self-help is a code word for “racism” and an attack on the poor. Liberals need a perpetual voting class. This can only be done through welfare dependency. In 2012, “109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded ‘means-tested programs’ — also known as welfare.” That’s 35.4 percent of the population. Most likely, it’s higher today.

When you add in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and veterans benefits, it’s nearly 50 percent.

Third, “liberty of conscience” is being attacked. Any opposition to same-sex sexuality is being attacked. Businesses that refuse to serve same-sex marriages are often sued with its owners having to go to re-education camps to get their minds right.

Today, it’s the State that’s the oppressor.

The left has been curtailed in Texas for the moment, but they won’t quit until they turn this Red state Blue. It’s no wonder that the Left is trying to take down Gov. Perry.