When he signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act, pushed through with huge expenditures of effort and political capital on his part, President Lyndon Johnson is supposed to have said it was the right thing, but it would cost the Democratic Party the South for a generation.
Last night's results hinted that generation's time may be passing, though indeed the Republicans still took almost all of the old Confederacy states, and Obama's really big gains seem to have been in old northern industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Mostly this just gives me a chance to note Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, one of the very best political histories I know, and most interesting on this profound topic.
But if you want more, here's an appealing American history blog with some thoughts and a reading list on the history of the American presidency
