What changed was the election of Barack Obama, twice. The "whitelash" was incredible and some voters, many of them not regular voters, coalesced behind the man who they felt voiced their concerns. The Republican Party at large stood by him even as video tapes and sex scandals became known that would have destroyed a normal candidate. He hated Obama and had been trolling him for years about his birth certificate, he promised the Heritage Foundation they could pick new judges/justices and told evangelicals he'd get rid of Roe v. Wade. In a sense, he mainly delivered on his promises, Republicans either didn't mind the racism or turned their heads and swallowed it. The reason doesn't matter much.