Do people in Maryland consider themselves North, Southern, or in Between? (Baltimore: skyscraper, travel)

[vivo]

Originally Posted by PropertyMan

I don't disagree, but the term "Southern" can have more than one meaning.

There is culturally southern, economically southern, politically southern, geographically southern, impressionistically southern, and demographically southern.

Personally, I view Maryland like any middle child. It is caught between and has to play with both sides. I made the transitional comment because it seems to me politically, economically, and socially shifting more toward similarities with northern states. It is not exactly a hard-core red state anymore.

does red always refer to republican? southern states started voting for republicans in pres elections starting in 68 I think. I think MD at least since the new deal was dominated by big city dem politics. Bmore dominated the state population for I don't know how long. I'm sure someone here can expand/correct/verify what i've typed.

[westsideboy]

Maryland has long been dominated by Democrats. This includes the Democratic party of the South before the Civil War and the union based working class Democratic party of the mid-20th century and the liberal party of the modern day. If a Republican candidate wins a state wide office it reflects more about the weakness of their opponent (KKT) than anything else.

[PropertyMan]

Originally Posted by vivo

does red always refer to republican? southern states started voting for republicans in pres elections starting in 68 I think. I think MD at least since the new deal was dominated by big city dem politics. Bmore dominated the state population for I don't know how long. I'm sure someone here can expand/correct/verify what i've typed.

Let me clarify. By "red" I was not referring to Republican (the party of Lincoln, which would certainly have Civil War implications). I was more thinking in terms of the cultural divide that seems to separate states by political views along geographic lines.

For a very long time (even before the Civil War) southern states often voted together in the interest of common needs. Whether at times when the southern states voted Democrat or more recently Republican, there has long been a measure of solidarity among them. Since the 60's southern states began to shift parties. Even though this has been a slow process, Maryland has not turned "red" with the rest of the South. It is more aligned with the North and this trend, long in place, seems to be accelerating as more and more farms are selling off and becoming subdivisions of cookie-cutter communities and strip malls.

This is again why I describe Maryland as in transition.

[westsideboy]

PropertyMan is right. MD voted for Breckinridge in 1860 with the South, and John Kerry in 2004 with the NE. Interestingly enough, there are parts of MD that have undergone the "red shift" if you want to call it that. Allegany County in Western Maryland was long a stronghold of conservative blue-collar Democrats, it is now a majority Republican County with only one Democratic state level official to go along with 3 Republicans. I believe that most of the Eastern Shore is still majority Democrat as far as registration but votes solidly Republican.

[spoonman3]

How does voting Republican or Democrat make something southern or northern? Voting doesn't determine culture especially in America where hardly anyone votes.

Maryland is southern.

[Tallybalt]

Maryland is a split state.

Carroll and Frederick Counties have more in common with the Pennsylvania counties on the other side of the state line. This has to do with the common landscape, and the common heritage of the original settlers. Beginning in the 18th century, a large migration of German settlers moved to Carroll and Frederick Counties and into York, Adams, and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania.

This part of the state was solidly anti-slavery and pro-Union during the Civil War.

Wester Maryland (Washington, Garrett, and Alleghany Counties) traditionally looked more to Pittsburgh than Baltimore. Even today, these counties have more in common with Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia than the rest of the state.

Eastern shore, Anne Arundel and counties south of there culturally belonged to Tidewater Virginia.

Howard and Montgomery Counties with piedmont Virginia. Along with the shore, these parts of the state sent many soldiers to fight for the south during the Civil War. It is also in these parts of Maryland where you might still find a "southern" flavor.

These days of rapid population movement and suburbanization, the cultural split of Maryland is changing and realigning forces. The eastern shore and western Maryland, along with Carroll and Frederick, now have more in common with one another than with Baltimore or DC or Howard or Montgomery Counties. But what has remained is that MAryland is still a sharply divided state.

[StuartSlate]

It has been written that in Prince George’s County during the 1860 presidential election there was only one vote throughout the whole county cast for Abraham Lincoln, and that, until just a few years ago, some residents of the county were still hunting for that voter.

Without doubt, once upon a time, just like Washington D.C., Prince George’s County Maryland was very much southern.

[dee2south]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Not northern enough to be a northerner, not southern enough to be a southerner, but just Appalachian enough to be a hillbilly.

Obviously you are not, in any way acquainted with Maryland History, or fell asleep during your History classes. If you have nothing to contribute other than your ignorance, please do not bother to contribute at all.

[westsideboy]

dee2South, WOW someone didn't have their Wheaties this morning. I got a nasty red face and everything.

If memory serves the posts directly before mine were MDers stating their personal regional identity. My post is how I, as a Western Marylander, would identitfy myself. I guess it would have been more clear if I had put "I am" at the beginning of the statement so everybody knew I was talking about myself and not the state as a whole. Because, as I am sure you know, calling Maryland as a whole an Appalachian state would be inaccurate

[carolina_guy]

I consider you guys northerners, but those north of you are yankees. And then there's the small pockets of damn yankees in that area.