“Tonight will tell whether it’s enough, but the scale of the mobilization from Blue America – primarily metro America – is unprecedented. It’s measured, for starters, in the record-setting Democratic fund-raising, mostly from small donors in well-educated areas, that’s swamped Republicans. It’s measured in outpouring of celebrity support for Biden. It’s measured in the unprecedented crossover support for Biden from top officials in the other party. Above all, the response is measured in the soaring turnout and margins metro America has provided Democrats since 2016.”
“Win or lose, GOP faces reality that places driving economic and population growth are consolidating against them to an unprecedented extent. Party faces risk of being tattooed to rising Millennials and Gen Z, not only with Trump’s racism and misogyny, but also his disdain for democracy and inciting violence. To win Trump’s favor, Republicans must not only excuse but emulate this behavior: Senator David Perdue, disgracing himself with open racism vs Harris, Marco Rubio belittling himself with groveling endorsement of vigilante violence in Texas, Texas Republicans suing to disqualify 127,000 votes. In all these ways, Trump has sentenced GOP to a strategy of squeezing bigger margins from groups and places that are shrinking – at price of provoking greater resistance from groups and places that are growing. He might make it work one more time and Senate favors the shrinking places. Also like the South in 1850s, facing a national majority coalescing against them behind the new Republican Party in the North, GOP today has laid down many procedural sandbags to block that new majority, particularly control of the Supreme Court. But under Trump Republicans have positioned party in open opposition to what America is becoming, governing only for those most fearful of the country’s changes. At any political moment, the past may win for a while. But the future always gets the last word. That may start today” – Ron Brownstein (heavily edited and condensed for clarity).