Do today's so called conservatives/GOP even realize that they are actually old "Southern Democrats"?

You are right. White southern Democrats did become Republicans. Whites continue to leave the Democratic Party. That's because Democrats call anyone that isn't African-American a racist. There won't be any whites, latinos, asians, etc., left in the Democratic Party if the Democrats keep doing that because people don't want to belong to a party that portrays them as racists. I read liberal blogs all the time on the internet. Many of the liberal blogs were created by African-Americans. Democrats don't consider Hillary Clinton to be one of them because she is not black. That's the reason why Hillary Clinton is having such a difficult time competing with Barack Obama. Democrats like Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey more than Hillary Clinton simply because they are black. Basically, most white Democrats in the South abandoned the Democratic Party and gave it to African-Americans. You are 100 percent correct.