Long term drift to the Democrats?

[Nym90]

True, though suburbs in general have trended strongly Democratic in recent years, compared to where they were. The Republicans' conservative positions on social issues such as guns and abortion have hurt them dearly in Oakland county in Michigan, for example, which now leans slightly Dem after having been strongly Republican for years. It's also the 3rd wealthiest county in the country.

[Nym90]

You are correct in pointing out that, basically, cultural divides between the parties are getting greater while economic divides are getting smaller. It used to be that the rich voted Republican and the poor voted Democratic, but this is much less true than it used to be. It's down to the point where even the richest voters are only about 60-40 Republican and the poorest are only about 60-40 Democratic. But cultural fault lines are getting greater. Democrats are getting stronger among wealthy, socially progressive voters and Republicans are gaining among poor, socially conservative voters. Whether or not this will continue in the future, however, is open to debate. Clinton was fairly popular with poor rural voters, but Gore was not. This seems to have made up most of the difference between 1996 and 2000, as Gore did almost as well as Clinton in most suburban and urban areas, with as you say exceptions in highly working class areas which voted more like rural areas did.

[Nym90]

Well, perhaps on some issues they have. Fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets used to be a conservative concept, but now that's considered far left.

[Nym90]

Well it depends on what you consider philosophical changes. I would say one of the biggest was during the 1960's though in which the Democrats became the pro-civil rights party after having been the anti-civil rights party for the most part throughout the previous 100 years. Until Kennedy came along (although the transformation was starting with Roosevelt and Truman already in the 1930's and 1940's, but did not really come to be until Kennedy and Johnson) equal rights for blacks was mostly a cause championed by northern Republicans and opposed vociferously by southern Democrats.