If you guys read what I posted a while back, it answers a lot of questions. Bugeye seems to be the only one who read it. Now as far as switching parties, most all the conservative democrats in the south switched when Reagan was president or shortly thereafter. Democrats ruled the south after the Civil War because Lincoln was a Republican. When the Dems started getting further and further left, the conservative democrats of the old south, which included Texas switched.
Back when Alabama won the national football championship in 1992, Alabama's senator Shelby was a democrat, life long southern democrat. Because he opposed Clinton on a lot of his issues, he was only given one ticket the the banquet at the Whitehouse honoring the football team. Now everyone else was given 8 tickets. Shelby said that was the last straw, he switched. He went to the University of Alabama, etc, but he said the Democratic party, especially under Clinton went too far left. So what, 20 years in the Republican party does not a switch hitter make. They were probably democrats far less time in their lives than Republicans. Reagan was a democrat until he discovered the real America in his travels, and he switched. Even back then, there was less real divide. Today the divide is getting bigger.