The Kansas Model

Kansas governance is interesting. In general, republicans are in control, and broadly speaking, republicans in Kansas can be characterized as either “moderate” or “conservative.” Moderate republicans would generally be considered moderate democrats in any other state, so the real ideological fights occur within one party while democrats play a minor role except when the republican gubernatorial nominee is so unpopular, we end up with a democratic governor and republican everything else.

Why should anyone care?

What happens if Biden wins the election, and democrats win control of the house and senate? The republican party has pretty much jettisoned everything that it stood for pre-Trump, so it is going to take time to reestablish itself in any viable form. That leaves a very diverse democratic party ranging from very moderate to those who want to see major changes now. Many Americans that will vote for Biden are not traditional democrats, and it is not unreasonable to think that a number of current moderate republicans would join the democratic party on ideological grounds, to escape the republican label, and to keep pace with changing demographics. Could we end up with a democratic party in control that is split into two main groups, one moderate, the other not-so-much. In that case America starts to look a lot like a liberal version of Kansas, and Kansas a good case-study for what to expect.