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Kos and Glenn Greenwald make the case.

The mountains of the West aren't turning purple, they are turning blue. Here's yet another example, once again from the Great State of Montana:

HELENA - It took only one strange day, but Montana Democrats now have carved out tenuous majorities in both houses of the 2007 Legislature, thanks to a party-switching senator and four more votes that erased a Republican winner in a Laurel House district.

In the state Senate, tied 25-25 between Democrats and Republicans after last week's elections, Republican Sen. Sam Kitzenberg of Glasgow said Monday he plans to switch parties, giving Democrats a 26-24 majority.

"I'm a moderate, and there is no room left in the Republican Party for moderates," Kitzenberg said Monday, explaining his decision. "I'm not leaving the Republican Party; it has basically left me."

I would actually add one more issue to Kos' list of factors driving the realignment: the environment. Over the last 25 years, the political economy of the western mountain states has been dramatically transformed. Tourism and outdoor recreation have replaced resource extraction as the region's primary source of economic growth, making protection of the environment absolutely essential to their way of life. And given that the federal government controls as much as 80% of the land in some western states, an overreaching federal authority can be absolutely crippling for residents of the state. "Extract at all costs" policies now hurt far more westerners than they help, prompting many states to push back on federal efforts to weaken environmental protections. As a result, the very same "leave us alone" phenomenon come into play, turning long-standing Republican arguments about extraction and economic development on their head.

Sen. Tester is just the first of many. Stay tuned...