captain_spalding said:

Kansas has voted for a Democrat senator.

For the first since 1932.

On his page, Jeff Tiedrich asked: ‘Do you know how badly you have to fuck up to get Republicans to vote for Democrats?’

In my mind there are two parts to this. Firstly, I think what the last few elections show us is that the electorate is probably not quite as partisan as was believed and that if pushed far enough, people will vote with their feet. Secondly, parties need to grow and adapt and actively build coalitions that are specific to geographies and that you can’t simply assume that because I won last time, I’m going to win this time.

The political pendulum in the US still feels like it’s swinging pretty wildly and that’s never a great thing because it tends to result in drastic wholesale changes in policy and strategic direction. What we probably need now is a calming and more moderate set of leaders and policies.