From Red to Purple?
As someone all too familiar with the genre, I'm highly skeptical of political analyses by libertarians who conveniently conclude that Democrats or Republicans are 1) gaining because they're appealing to libertarians or 2) losing because they're alienating libertarians.
But Ryan Sager's article in The Atlantic proves an exception to the usual unsophisticated spin. He focuses specifically on the intermountain West, a culturally libertarian region with changing demographics, and builds a poltically savvy case that Republicans are beginning to be hurt by turning their back on the Goldwater tradition. In a new posting on Real Clear Politics, Ryan recaps the argument for those too cheap to get an Atlantic subscription and responds to some of his critics.