what happened to vermont?

[elcorazon]

I think the parties have changed.  It used to be there were many social liberals & conservatives in both parties and the main differences were economic.  At that time many of the eastern states, like VT & NJ were fairly conservative.  As the Republicans have moved so far to the right on social issues, those states have drifted to the democrats, who have changed quite a bit on economic issues anyway.  That's one reason I think NH is becoming a democratic state and will go for Kerry or Edwards this November.

[elcorazon]

wha tis the majority opinion here:

did vermont become more democratic because...

a.) the gop keeps moving to the right, which has turned off the more liberal 'yankee republicans'

b.) the influx of more liberal people from places like nyc.  (i do recall some kind of article about 'taking over vermont'...i think it appeared in playboy in the 60s?)

c.) all of the above.

I vote a, although there may be a bit of b as well.  I think the entire northeast region has been abandoned by the republicans, who have chosen to move to the right on social issues to appeal to the conservative democrats in the south and the conservative republicans in the west.  Electorally this was smart for the Republicans, especially in the 70's and early 80's when the Democrats were clearly the majority party affiliation.  As this changes, it may not be so smart to alienate so many states, which could easily go to the Republicans were it not for the extreme right wing views in areas like gay marriage, abortion, school prayer, etc.  

I have a feeling that some of the strong Republican states may start swinging to the Democrats as the population increases (FL, GA, AZ, NV, NC).  

[elcorazon]

FL used to be staunchly republican, no?