Reply #7: We'd also need to look at the congressional districts and recent job losses

[Essene]

I think there are a lot of factors, none of which are 100% correlated to the shifts.

I bet those biggest shifts to blue/red were also battleground districts and perhaps also had massive job losses in the last few years. I'm just speculating. But those big jumps to the red in 2008 are weird, and i can easily imagine those being hot spots where a lot of very nasty anti-Obama ads ran or something equivalent for local/state elections.

People staying republican is one thing, but them becoming MORE republican this year is really hard to fathom.

It's obviously going to also imply some of the most racist and fearful communities in america.