Here we go talking in code again.

Four Democrats in the Alabama House are switching to the Republican Party. Those are Mike Millican of Hamilton; Steve Hurst of Munford; Alan Boothe of Troy and Lesley Vance of Phenix City.

They said they switched because they’re very conservative and they view things more as Republicans than as Democrats.

OK.

Why not just spit out the truth? They are white Democrats in mostly white areas that vote Republican because since Nixon put together his Southern Strategy in 1968, most white people eased over to the Republican Party in the South.

Local folks really rolled over during the Reagan years. Hosts of locals who had stood for election under the Democratic banner jumped ship.

At one point, some people had predicted racial politics dead in the South, especially with the election of Barack Obama as president.

Don’t kid yourself. The two-party system in the Deep South is as based on color as it has ever been since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Democrats who jumped ship Monday gave lame reasons for the switch. They did not experience some on the road to Damascas kind of conversion. Anybody who knows Southern Democrats, with the exception of a few like Al Gore, knows Southern Democrats are conservative by nature. These guys could have remained Democrats and voted as they wished.

No. Something deeper is happening in this state with the two-party system. It’ll be interesting to watch it play out.