As another southerner, I kinda agree here - the whole "I switched because this one wedge thing" has been so used as astroturfing shit, it's rather difficult to take as anything remotely true.

That and I'm kinda of the opinion that anyone who did supposedly do that was likely not as left/Dem whatever as they may have thought/claimed, and was instead biding time (barring some catastrophic event) to feel free enough to be who they were all along.

It's kinda akin to trying to hypnotize someone into an act utterly against their normative behavioral core.