I'm intensely amused that Vermont used to be quite Republican just a decade or so ago.
Vermont's brand of Republicanism was pretty much unrecognizable compared to the national Republican party now. Probably the only conservative Republican Senator from Vermont in the past century was Ralph Flanders. The lurch to the right is what killed the Vermont Republican Party.
I love when Democrats use that talking point in every single case. You can perhaps blame the GOP on losing Colorado, Nevada, and perhaps even Oregon; but Vermont was trending left big time since 1988, and is now one of the most leftists states in the union. It's a very effective case, and has influenced many people, but Vermont is a terrible example if you want to move forward with this talking point.
Plus, Reagan who won Vermont very solidly, was conservative.
No, Vermont had a proud tradition of progressive Republicanism, and now it doesn't because that phrase is now an oxymoron.
I don't quite understand what your point is with Reagan, since he won every state except for Minnesota, and in 1980 it was the second-best state for... moderate Republican turned independent John Anderson.
I have always thought Vermont started to lurch to left in 1958 long before the GOP moved right. Before 1958 a Conservative Republican could still win any of the state's offices, heck any Republican could win the state back then. Granted the Republican movement to the right exacerbated the problem especially starting in the 1980's, by now I think the state would still have become a Democratic state, even if the GOP had more moderate or leftist views. Vermont underwent significant demographic changes in the 50's and 60's bringing in a lot of Urbanites from New York and Boston. NH is a great modern day example of the same trend. 1958 proved Dems could win in VT for the first time and 1974 was like 2006-2008 in NH.
