Has the electoral map fundamentally "changed"?

For the past 50 years or so the electoral map has favored republicans but i wonder if that is now over.

The northeast is now solidly democratic with even new hampshire now leaning blue.

California has been solidly blue for 20 years as are the other 2 west coast states. Southwestern states are moving more solidly democratic, to the point that it is foreseeable that arizona might be competitive in less than a generation.

And perhaps more importantly the midwest, outside of indiana and ohio, seems solid for the democrats.

Think about this: the republicans can flip (from 2008 election) indiana, north carolina, virginia, ohio, and florida and still lose.

i think its a sign of a real shift in the map

I don't think it's a change of the map. A deeper more malignant thought process in America.

Without disclosing what I think consider the following:

Which values have changed?
Who represents those values more closely?


Remember, it was the Republicans back in the early 20th that were early backers of woman's suffrage. But, by the 1960's the Democrats had staked out the civil rights for their party platform.

Parties change and people change. We'll see if it's for the best or worse...

Wasn't the map changed after the Census?

Wasn't that why people were against Obama being the main one handling the Census returns?

Seems I recall something about that.

online.wsj.com...

Why Obama Wants Control of the Census
Counting citizens is a powerful political tool..

President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to "restore science to its rightful place" in government. That's a worthy goal. But statisticians at the Commerce Department didn't think it would mean having the director of next year's Census report directly to the White House rather than to the Commerce secretary, as is customary. "There's only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement," a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. "And it's called politics, not science."

The Obama administration is downplaying how closely the White House will oversee the Census Bureau. But Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insists there is "historical precedent" for the Census director to be "working closely with the White House."

Yes, the political pot was stirred, just google this:

redrawing congressional district lines

search.pennlive.com...

reply to post by Vrill


All the census data and statistics show an increase in minorities as aa percentage of the population.

Add to that...Republicans have antogonized the elderly with talk of ending/significantly altering medicaid and medicare and social security.

This puts retirement states like AZ and FL...with large retirement communities AND increased minority populations (Latino) in play for the Democrats. Ohio benefited from the Auto bailout, which Mitt more-or-less opposed.

Appealing to Rich, White Americans might work in good economic times and with a strong majority of whites, but in an ever more diverse population, people living longer (older) and emerging from an economic crisis it is a poor strategy, and the GOP is waking up to that fact a little late IMHO.

The temporary fix is Voter ID Laws/Voter suppression. They have also eliminated "early voting" in many of the swing states...where many of the elderly and working poor choose to vote early. The elderly don't like lines and the working poor can't take off work to vote.

The primary demographic shift is that minorities are about to become about 1/2 of the electorate, meanwhile many top Republicans continue to voice policies guaranteed to offend and turn off these minorities to their brand. The Republicans have become a mostly whites only party and that's just not going to fly come election time when a very large percentage of whites also won't be voting Republican either. It's hard to win too many elections when you have only a fraction of 1/2 of the electorate voting for your candidates. At present they are barely holding on, but as time goes by it seems their slice of the pie will only get smaller and smaller.

I think the only thing that might save the Republican party is that the younger generation among conservatives, the twenty-somethings and under simply don't hold the same prejudices that many older conservatives seem to. But it's going to take a good generation or two before this body represents the main-line of conservatism and can control the direction the party takes. Until then, I think a lot of these young conservatives will either be looking towards moderate Democrats or hoping for an independent who holds their ideas, too.

The GOP had a pretty big sweep across the country, not just in the US congress but at the state level as well. They got to draw and approve the new congressional districts. If anything, I see a greater shift towards the GOP than towards the Democrats.