GOP bottom to top.(Politico)

The day has finally arrived: The Republican Party is now the natural governing majority party in the U.S.

The November 2 election increased the Republican majority in the House from 228 to 232 and in the Senate from 51 to 55. Republicans control 50 of the 99 state legislative bodies, and GOP governors dominate nationwide. There are 12 states with Republican trifectas--control of both legislative houses and the governor's seat, enabling clear paths to legislation and redistricting. These include large states such as Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, and Indiana, plus Utah, Idaho, Alaska, North and South Dakota, and South Carolina--a total of 146 electoral votes. Democrats have complete control of seven states: Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Louisiana, North Carolina, Maine, and West Virginia, with 74 electoral votes.

In 2004, the 30 states that voted for Bush in 2000 gained seven electoral votes, thanks to population shifts south and west. In 2012, this fattening up of red-state electoral clout will continue.

Republicans have won a majority in the House of Representatives in six straight elections, and have held the Senate for ten years (1994-2004), with the sole exception of 18 months lost to the Jim Jeffords (I-VT) defection. President Bush's victory makes him the first President since 1936 to be re-elected while gaining seats in the House and Senate.

In 2000, exit polls showed that 39 percent of voters called themselves Democrats and 35 percent Republicans. In 2004, it was 37 percent Republicans and 37 percent Democrats. Every year, 2 million Americans who turned 21 during the decades of Democratic dominance-1932 to 1952--pass away.

John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, authors of The Emerging Democratic Majority, published just before the mid-term Republican victories on November 5, 2002, had predicted that increasing numbers of Hispanic voters would turn America to the Democrats. Former Clinton administration adviser Dick Morris had made a similar prediction. But in 2004, the GOP won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, up from 34 percent in 2000. The Hispanic vote is not the African-American vote-hopelessly committed to the Democratic Party. And Bush campaign workers point out that Hispanics who identify ...