You Can't Comment On History If You Don't Know History

In an article on West Virginia's move toward the Republican Party, the author writes:

What’s happening in West Virginia runs against the tide nationally, and even more, against the pull of its own history. (emphasis mine)

West Virginia exists as a state because it broke away from Virginia in 1863 and refused to join the confederacy. From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s era until the 2000 election, it was among the most reliably Democratic states, one of only six that Jimmy Carter carried in 1980, and 10 that Michael S. Dukakis won in 1988.

I wonder if the author even understands that to side with the union in the Civil War, to refuse to join the confederacy, was to reject the Democrats and side with the Republicans? In other words, West Virginia was birthed out of allegiance to Republican ideals. So instead of claiming that the change is "against the pull of its own history," one could as well contend that it is a reversion to the state's original and most fundamental allegiances. The nightmare of its misplaced loyalties since the New Deal era may be finally over.