Why can moderate republicans win in red states but not the other way around?

[RINO Tom]

I think most can acknowledge how unique the Obama era was on local politics and how odd the Trump era very well could be on national politics ... I think it's not safe to make any judgments about things like this right now.  A bad Trump Presidency very well could see states like Arkansas or Kentucky electing their local Democrats again ... then again, it could very well not.

[RINO Tom]

This thread reminds me of a thread Mr. Illini made about the most "quintessentially" DEM and GOP states one time; it wasn't necessarily getting at which states would vote the most that way in terms of PVI or whatever.  Places like Arkansas and West Virginia and Kentucky have a LOT of people alive whose parents would never vote for a Republican no matter what, and Vermont and Maine have people like that on the other side.  Those states aren't quite the same as Utah/Idaho.