The blueness or redness of a region has to be viewed in context of specific candidates. The give-a-damn factor has a lot to do with this. A factoid that I love to quote is that in 2008, 40% of Americans who were eligible to vote did not vote for any presidential candidate.
Which is absolutely despicable. I always love those that say “I just couldn’t bring myself to vote” (you know the ones that are so self righteous and principled) but if truth be known, they’ll scream like stuck pigs (or maybe they’re doing that now) when it really gets bad...because as they say “we ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.