After this, every flip will be a temporary flip. We're entering a phase of America's history where the most either party holds either chamber is 4-6 years at a time, if even that.
Not necessarily.
First, and most importantly, if the economy inproves immigration will restart and this does heavily favor Democrats. We can thank our hispanic friends for the very positive Democratic results even in this bad year out West (CO, NV, CA, WA).
Secondly, this shift is solely based on economic angst, which will eventually evaporate as either the economy improves (or more likely, people just get used to being poor). The younger generations relatively less interest in the GOPs cultural/religious/racial themes, so in 'normal' - non-economic freefall - times, they'll be back to voting Dem.
All the results here look positive, correcting for the ephemeral angst-wave - better than expected results in the West and Southwest, and somewhat better in suburbia nationwide. Really the Democrats lost most heavily in the hopeless declining areas - Midwest, rust belt (IL, WI, MO, PA, OH), the one exception being WV.
