Southern political personalities like sweet corn travel badly. They lose flavor with every hundred yards away from the patch. By the time they reach New York they are like Golden Bantam that has been trucked up from Texas - stale and unprofitable. The consumer forgets that the corn tastes different where it grows.
We can't equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.