The GOP also did well in Florida, which shocked me, and they held the line in Georgia and Texas. Their losses were mainly concentrated in Sun Belt and blue state suburbs, owing to both demographic displacement and the fact that suburbicuck voters are pro-immigrant, pro-free trade, and love to virtue-signal against “racism” (see: Kansas). The suburban strivers in Arizona and Texas view themselves as petty feudal lords and are against any policy agenda that makes it harder for them to stiff their illegal alien gardeners.
It’s clear that the GOP needs to go full steam on the Trump agenda. This election flushed a lot of cucks out of the system and made it obvious that nationalism is what the base wants. The Tea Party libertarians need to go; they are electoral poison (see: Scott Walker, Dave Brat etc. going down to defeat). A nationalist GOP will win bigly in 2020, particularly since the Dems will probably run a Kamala Harris- or Cory Booker-type with bland centrist politics.
The GOP also needs to cut its losses in the West and focus on turning the Rust Belt red. The Western states have always been pro-free trade/pro-immigrant, going back to the 19th century, and they’re not going to change their minds now, especially with La Raza rising in demographic power. Nevada and Colorado are not purple states anymore; they’re blue states. 2016 proved that a populist platform will win over the Midwest while maintaining enough support in Western red states to keep them in the GOP column, and since you need only one more vote than the other guy to win a state, it doesn’t matter if Trump’s margins are slightly lower in Texas or Arizona.
