In a piece written on election night, John B. Judis argues that the country is undergoing a realignment and that if Obama and the Democrats act boldly, they may be able to create a lasting Democratic majority:
Obama is taking office under dramatically different circumstances [than Carter and Clinton]. His election is the culmination of a Democratic realignment that began in the 1990s, was delayed by September 11, and resumed with the 2006 election. This realignment is predicated on a change in political demography and geography. Groups that had been disproportionately Republican have become disproportionately Democratic, and red states like Virginia have turned blue. Underlying these changes has been a shift in the nation's ‘fundamentals'--in the structure of society and industry, and in the way Americans think of their families, jobs, and government. The country is no longer ‘America the conservative.' And, if Obama acts shrewdly to consolidate this new majority, we may soon be ‘America the liberal.'