It's not saying more partisan, it's saying more liberal. take gay marriage for instance, it was only 2000 when California (freaking Cali-Forney) voted by Proposition to ban gay marriage. So at that time California was much more conservative despite still being largely regarded as a blue state and the land of the nuts and flakes. They have moved MUCH further left. And that is generally the paradigm across most issues. America used to be a largely Christian, right-of-center country. IMO, thanks to cable, social media, MSM, Hollywood influence we have seen a large group of America move very far left. Gay marriage was so far off the radar in the 80's that no one ever seriously even proposed it. Had someone proposed it in the 70's, they would have flat been run out of town. When the left accuses the right of trying to pull us towards "extreme" views, they are full of crap. It is the left that has moved the goalpost on what constitutes "extreme" these days.