Two Americas

The word "trifecta" has been used to describe states where one party holds the governorship and a majority in both houses of the state legislature. With that in mind, here is an outcome of the 2020 midterms that hasn't gotten enough attention.

• The Democratic Party gained trifectas in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota.
• The Democratic Party lost a trifecta in Nevada.
• The Republican Party lost a trifecta in Arizona.

As a result, there are now 40 states with trifectas - 23 Republican and 17 Democratic. 

As of January 2023, over 80% of Americans live in states with governments entirely controlled by one of the two major parties - 41.7% live in Democratic states and 39.6% in Republican states.  Here is how that has changed over the last 30 years:

As state governors and legislators get to work in 2023, it is easy to get freaked out over what is happening in those Republican trifecta states on "culture war" issues like women's rights, voting rights, schools, guns, crime, immigrants, etc. But we should also not lose sight of the fact that things are playing out very differently in blue states. 

It's not just that Democrats are doing things like codifying a woman's right to chose and passing gun safety measures. They know that governing is also about the so-called "kitchen table issues." So as Greg Sargent wrote, "they're fusing an attack on right-wing culture-warring with a focus on economic fairness." So as red states continue to go backwards on every front, blue states will move forward - widening the divide that already exists on quality of life issues. 

I don't have a lot of predictions about how all of that is going to end, but we really are becoming the divided states of America. Frankly, at this point I'm just relieved to be living in a state that went with Team Blue.