Old, Uneducated, In the Boonies? You Might Be a Republican

The last election has demonstrated a remarkable turn of the political tide.

An enormous amount of data-sifting is being done to determine exactly what has shifted in the electorate.

A thoughtful and learned discussion, in contrast to this sarcastic, rabble-rousing summary, can be found here:

Brookings Institute - Election Demographics

While the number of registered Republicans sank to lows not seen since the Clinton years (33% of registered voters), the proportion of Republican voters shrank to a minority in every age group except the elderly.

Rightwing blowhards who still trumpet the phenomena of "Reagan Democrats" might want to consider that there aren't many of them left.

Not a huge cohort of people who were 50 years old in 1980 still going to the polls.

The old do prefer Republicans. 

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Suburban voters now prefer Democrats, joining urbanites who have always provided blue oases, even in the reddest deserts. 

The "Ex-urbanites" who live in developed communities outside urban and suburban areas now vote Democratic.

Ignorant ranters used to publish articles claiming that the population shifts from the northeast and mid-west industrial belts to southern regions heralded the inevitable decline of the Democratic prty.

Guess what?  Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina voted Democratic.  Oops.

Do rightwing idiots really believe that Democrats change  their political persuasion when they move?

I recall an especially stupid rant bragging on the population growth in New Hampshire at the expense of the Bay State.

The careless braggart who posted that article may want to think this through a bit further since New Hampshire is now solidly blue.

Likewise the reflexive wingnut "Political Consultant" who announced the diminished political clout of California as the state's population growth slowed in comparison to Nevada and Colorado.

Hmmmm, not a lot of valuable thought from this windbag, as Nevada and Colorado voted strongly Democratic.

Only in rural areas do Republicans still comprise a majority of voters.

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Finally, the population at every level of educational attainment prefers Democrats.

The intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party, coupled with the unrelenting anti-scientific biases of the Republican "base", is sufficient to explain this result.

The professional classes, all those who have a post-graduate education and actually understand something about the subject areas on which politicians bloviate, have been strongly Democratic for twenty-five years.