Well, to be fair - when your party can't win elections at any level in a large and growing swath of the US, you have to come up with another plan, right? If voters are leaving you, you have try something else if you're going to only worry about keeping your "core." So, change the voting laws, find a way to drive out the "enemy" wherever you find him or her...county, state, it doesn't matter. What else can you do?