why is the american west becoming more democrat territory nowadays?

Question

The red states seem to be the southern and great plain states.The rest are becoming more purple or even blue.What's happening

Answer 1

Liberalism is being embraced by the Westerners and it is the reason that they become Democrats.

Answer 2

The West strongly supports civil liberties and fiscal conservatism, which are issues the Republicans have been weak on of late. They've passed the Patriot Act. They've passed a law that legalized torture. They've doubled the size of the hated Department of Education. They've created the biggest budget increase since the LBJ administration.

The Tester VS Burns race from Montana last year is a great example. Burns had traditionally been a strong supporter of civil liberties and a fiscal conservative, but during the debates he attacked Tester on the basis that Tester wanted to weaken the Patriot Act. Tester's response was that he didn't want to weaken the Patriot Act, he wanted to repeal it. That's why he beat Burns in Montana last year, helping the Democrats take over the Senate.

The Democrats have taken advantage of the Republicans ignoring libertarians and taking their votes for granted. Libertarians as a group support strong civil liberties (though they usually are against "positive rights"), tend to be fiscally conservative (that's actually not entirely true, because the conservatives are to the left of the libertarians on fiscal matters), and may or may not be for war (the radical libertarians tend to be strongly anti-war, while moderates tend to be more inclined to support wars). For example, in the presidential election, Ron Paul and Mike Gravel tend to support what the majority of Americans believe, though Gravel is the more moderate of the 2. Both campaigns are unpopular with the media because the media is out of touch. Gravel wants to end the war as soon as possible, replace the IRS with the Fairtax, and create a Healthcare bureaucracy (which is one not-so-libertarian idea which is currently popular). Paul wants to end the war as soon as possible, eliminate the IRS and Federal Reserve, and shut down any parts of the Federal Government not specifically authorized by the Constitution.

The Republican Party became the party of the big government and has lost popular support as a result.

Answer 3

Do you remember what great shape our Nation was in when Clinton left office compared to today?

Now look at the disgusting mess we are in after a few years under Bush. Everyone hates us and it has become stressful just to get up and see what foolish thing he is doing next. Look at how many of our brave and dedicated soldiers will never come home because Bush was busy going after Saddam instead of Osama. Every thing we had should have gone towards Osamas capture. This administration has been filled with Lies Lies Lies... to suit their own agenda.

Why would you even have to ask why there has been a shift?

Answer 4

Simple: Population shift.

Answer 5

PEOPLE HATES WAR.