An article today by Thomas Edsall at the Huffington Post looks at the demographics of the Rocky Mountain states to make a case for a shift that favors the Democrats. The reason is the increase in the population of white college-educated professionals and Hispanics.
The problem I see with this analysis is that it assumes these two groups favor the urban liberal orthodoxy. If the ideological differences of our parties are based on lifestyle preferences rather than racial and ethnic identity or education, then these voters may vote more conservatively than their counterparts in urban areas. Edsall concedes that these voters are more libertarian than liberal, which points out why it's unlikely they will vote in lockstep with urban coastal voters. Gun control and redistributive tax policies come to mind.
It's unclear to me how liberal ideology can prevail in a country that still views itself as center-right.
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