As the last of the election results are coming in from slow-counting Arizona, the returns from around the country have revealed a dramatic shift in the electorate that both major parties are trying to understand and adapt to. Donald Trump will return to the White House while Kamala Harris suffered one of the worst Electoral College defeats for a Democrat since Michael Dukakis in 1988.

The reasons for Trump’s win and/or Harris’ loss — they’re not the same thing — are being debated by pundits and political scientists nationwide, and you can satiate your curiosity as you see fit with long think pieces online.

Paradoxically, though, the Republican flip of the presidency and U.S. Senate did not translate to Arizona.

Republican Kari Lake, who was hoping to ride Trump’s coattails into the Senate, and who never admitted she lost the race for Arizona governor in 2022, suffered a second defeat in as many election cycles, this time at the hands of Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Republicans picked up seats in the Arizona State House and Senate, but not enough to overcome the possibility of future vetoes by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has used them in record numbers. Aside from four senate sessions, Republicans have had a legislative majority in both Arizona chambers since 1967.

As part of their efforts to outmaneuver Hobbs’ pen, the Republican-dominated Arizona State Legislature sent various pieces of previously failed legislation directly to voters as 11 different ballot propositions. Seven of them failed spectacularly — some by more than 70%. The two that passed will have only a minor effect on the majority of Arizonans: Proposition 311 will give $250,000 to the families of first responders who die while on duty, and Prop. 313 mandates life sentences for child sex traffickers, crimes for which only four to nine people are convicted per year and they already receive sentences that are on average 30 years or longer, which is a de facto life sentence.

Prop. 312 passed as a measure to address homelessness on private property, but has loopholes one can drive a truck through. If a policing agency makes a good-faith effort to enforce statutes regarding issues related to homelessness and has no official policy to ignore them, the law isn’t applicable. Prop. 314 is a resurrection of Senate Bill 2070, which may address some immigration issues in the near future, but will likely face litigation for years before being whittled down by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Voters soundly rejected a proposition affecting tipped wages for service workers.

Voters also overwhelmingly supported a measure to make abortion access a fundamental right under the Arizona State Constitution. Similar measures passed in seven of 10 other states — and technically in Florida, too, but the 57% vote in favor was less than the 60% required for the measure to become law. But Democrats who had hoped abortion issues alone would secure them victory in other races in 2024 learned the hard way that voters had other ideas. Democrats had 49 years to codify Roe v. Wade as federal law but never did, opting instead to use the threat of Republicans reversing it to motivate voters to go to the polls. With Roe gone and abortion issues returned to the states, voters were able to have their say at the ballot box without needing Democratic lawmakers as proxies.

The November election upended much of the last eight years of conventional political wisdom and coalitions, and it’s unclear what will happen next. Self-styled progressives who moved to “purple” Arizona after the COVID pandemic and have now decided to flee back to “blue” states for mere political reasons are abandoning the working class they claimed to champion.

Actual workers can’t just shuttle from one state to another on a whim after an election and buy expensive homes when they’re too busy trying to pay rent on the homes they can’t afford to own. The Democrats and economic elite who don’t understand that also don’t understand why the working class, especially minority voters, abandoned a party that apparently already abandoned them long ago.

We’re clearly in a dealignment period and at the end of America’s Sixth Party System (see below).

Republicans who have now discovered populism wins elections may change major parts of their platform because populist elected officials only win elections by doing what’s “popular,” or they don’t stay elected officials for long, and that could lead to increasing numbers of Republicans supporting social programs and unions, and providing economic benefits for the working class.

On the other hand, if Republicans don’t address the economic unrest that voters say is their top concern, power could and will shift back to Democrats in 2026 and 2028, if they can spend the next few years rededicating themselves to the working and middle class.

Parties are not static; they are made up of people making decisions. What happens next depends on who does what with the power they were granted by voters on Nov. 5.