has the story of the past several decades in presidential elections

[freepcrusher]

been that of areas assimilating more to how they should be voting. The link below is what I'm talking about. https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=207702.0

The presence of a lot of "should be voting this way" areas have declined as they have generally assimilated to there counterparts nationwide. An example is areas like DuPage County, IL or Cottle, TX which are voting more or less how you would have expected them to all along. Also in Kentucky there was marked difference in areas like the old 5th and old 7th districts, both of which are converging politically.

If the dems go the Elizabeth Warren route then all bets are off but if the dems go more the Clinton route, places like Morris County, NJ I think should eventually assimilate to voting more like Nassau or Suffolk County, NY for example.

[SingingAnalyst]

Bill Bishop discusses this phenomenon in The Big Sort. At that time 2004 was the most recent election, but his predictions have become even more true. Today's alignments are pretty much set in stone, and it would take a major upheaval to undo them. For example, Hurricane Katrina did not. The Dems will never nominate a pro-lifer or someone who supports religious exeptions to anti-gay discrimination laws, for example, and the GOP will never nominate a Wiccan. Except for the very poor, people vote more on these "social" issues than economic ones, believing both parties to be of, by, and for the very rich (which in truth they are). Perhaps the last holdout was West Virginia, which went from Clinton's 5th best state in 1992 to Obama's 5th worst in 2012.