American cultural attitudes, whatever the electoral fortune of the Democratic Party, have been moving steadily leftward since the 1960s.

Witness the Civil Rights movement, women’s liberation and entry into the workforce, the growing influence of the green lobby, growing acceptance of the realities of abortion and gay rights (two issues that the Republican Party has exhausted and abandoned for this campaign because the hard-liners now hold the minority opinion).

Young people and college-educated people prefer today’s Democratic Party over today’s Republican Party by increasing margins. The demographic group most virulently anti-Obama, white Appalachian senior citizens, are undoubtedly among the most ignorant and isolated people in the United States (and the poorest and least educated). I know these things because I’ve lived there all my life.

A new AP poll shows Obama leading McCain nationally by 6 points, his largest margin yet. Republicans need to rethink their strategies and start offering solutions, instead of futilely complaining about the lifestyles of 21st century Americans.