State/Federal Divide – Media Missed Republican Takeover of New England – What It means for the future of politics.
One of the dynamics of the television/Internet age, is that the world is a much smaller place. Whatever happens in one place is easily known thousands of miles away.
In politics, that has tended to make all things national. A Presidential candidate does not have to campaign in one state for his/her message to be heard on any given day in another state (although as Hillary proved, that doesn’t mean you can ignore states). It also means almost all politics have become national – elections are often fought on a national basis between the parties even when it is a single Congressional seat in a special election.
HOWEVER: The Democrats, as this article points out, have almost abandoned state politics. They continue to lose at the state level except in the bluest of states. Consider the changes in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania in the last decade.
It appears that the Democrats are fighting national battles and not engaging in local politics.
If that trend continues, in the long run, because the strength of state parties and houses significantly impacts Congressional elections, it could mean that the House will continue to lean Republican as well as the Senate. In other words, the Democrats maybe positioning themselves to just compete for the Presidency.
NY Post’s Zito:
“Republicans, at some level, are competing in every state up and down the ballot, while Democrats are not competing anywhere but on the coasts and in the big cities. In short, they are a regionalized party, confined to the most densely populated parts of the nation — more cut off and compartmentalized than the GOP.”
