North Carolina has had an oppositional reputation since the foundation of
the Republic.
Originally a contrarian colony of small landowners who rejected the
hierarchy of aristocratic elements in South Carolina, the proprietary owners
established a more sparsely populated yet very lush state which kept to itself
for much of its existence. One of the last states to ratify the Constitution (
the 11th, and in 1790), North Carolina also stalled before joining the
Confederacy when the War Between the States broke out in 1861.
Now, North Carolina, along with Florida and Virginia, has become one of the
first Southern state to flip toward Democratic control, at least briefly. In
the ensuing years following President Obama's ascendancy to the White House,
Republicans have regained control and carved up safe Congressional districts to
protect the Republican party's resurging dominance in the state.
Aside from the embarrassing yet frivolous indictments against high-powered
lawyer and native son John Edwards and the decline of the textile industry, I
believe that North Carolina will regain her strong foothold as a bastion of
limited government conservatism, defining marriage as a union of one man and
one woman while prospering a revival of contrarianism that resists modern
pressures to conform to failing norms.