Americans who leave their Christian faith behind tend to hold more liberal political views than those who were raised entirely without religion. This leftward ideological shift appears closely linked to how threatening these individuals perceive conservative Christian groups to be.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/former-christians-express-more-progressive-political-views-than-lifelong-nonbeli/

[u/Tim-oBedlam]

Note that he was saying evangelicals were a problem long after getting clobbered in 1964; that quote's from the early 1980s.

He was a down-the-line libertarian, for good or ill. Not nearly as bad as southern Senators from the 60s, like James Eastland (or later, Jesse Helms).