That all conservatives are Republicans, or they even vote lockstep with the republican party.

They aren't and they don't. In fact, a good number of them are independents or libertarians.

Speaking of the South, the South is still predominantly Democrat. Now sure...they generally vote Republican during the presidential election, but that's just ONE election.

For example, in North Carolina, they've only had 2 Republican governors since Reconstruction - one in 1976 and another in 1984. The rest have been Democrat. Same with Georgia, in which Sonny Perdue was elected in 2002 as the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. And its the same way for most Southern states. So while Southerners voted Republican in presidential elections, they still voted - and still do vote - Democrat in everything else.

Even your premise that Barry's campaign run initially helped to make the South a GOP stronghold is wrong. Even in 1960 if it wasn't for JFK choosing Johnson, he would have lost a number of states in the south...and would have lost the election. Therefore, it must not have been that much of a Democratic stronghold, if he needed a Southerner on his ticket in order to win a number of Southern states.

And since he was facing an opponent who was the Republican vice president of the U.S. in elections that won significant states in the South before Goldwater's campaign, and then went on to win the presidency with a number of states in the South AFTER Goldwater's campaign. So, if Republicans were winning Southern states before and after Goldwater, how can you say that it was his campaign that led the South to be a Republican stronghold? In 1976 Democrat Jimmy Carter carried ALL of the South to win the election and become president.

But hey....the South was a GOP stronghold after Goldwater's campaign, right? Amazing...considering he only carried 5 states in the South himself.

The GOP stronghold on the South started with Reagan, winning both elections in the 80's big, along with the Democrats placing more leftist candidates on the ticket. In truth, it was the significant change the Democrats went through, with McGovern in 72 and Carter in 76 and 80, that initially started the change in the South. Had the Democrats not become a party that eventually turned completely left, the GOP probably still wouldn't win solid majorities in the South.

While Barry did help to change the Republican Party from a national level and some of his principles did resound from Reagan (who was conservative and Republican before Goldwater's campaign or the Civil Rights Movement, I might add), that doesn't equal out to him being the "modern-day ideologue" and the basis of conservative thought, because it implies 1. that there weren't any conservatives that thought similar to him before he came on the scene, which is false and 2. The Dixiecrats have been able to secure the South ever since for the GOP, which is incorrect as well.

But hey, continue to believe you're shooting fishes with rocket launchers. You're only shooting yourself in the foot.
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"Are you saying there's no qualified black Democrats out there to be veep? I mean, he didn't even consider them. I mean 94% of the black population votes for the Democrat candidate every four years, and no black leaders were even demanding it! They weren't even demanding it.

So we're thinking, okay, who would be somebody that could really shake it up? And we came up with one man. We came up with a name, folks: Donovan McNabb. Kerry-McNabb. The only problem is neither of them could carry Philadelphia." - Rush Limbaugh