Blue East, meet the red West.

Everything changed while we weren't looking. Well, not everything--but enough changed on Election Day that many Democrats are more than a little dismayed.

I have always been a registered Independent, but I must confess that my political leanings tend to be on the Democratic side of the ledger. I also must confess that I did vote for a number of Republicans here in Wyoming on Nov. 2. For one thing, there weren't many Dems to choose from, and for another, I have come to know a number of Republican incumbents whom I genuinely like. They also do not begrudge me my perceived Massachusetts liberal status. (There's a hint in there about Wyomingites and Wyoming Republican politics. More to come below, but Wyomingites are just exceptionally warm and friendly people.)

As a Massachusetts native and formerly lifelong resident of the East Coast, I recently transplanted myself from the heart of Democrat country to the hub of Republican nationalism--Wyoming. Waking up on Nov. 3, I felt like Alice must have felt in Wonderland: it wasn't so much frightening as everything was different. How did it get that way?

While every member of the U.S. Congress from Massachusetts is a Democrat, every member of the Wyoming congressional delegation--all three of them--is a Republican. Wyoming is the most powerful state in the U.S. Senate, having three votes when necessary--as the state's former U.S. Representative and favorite son, Vice President Dick Cheney, is president of the Senate, for those who may need a civics refresher--and then there's its one Representative in the House. Further, it is widely rumored that Wyoming's Sen. Mike Enzi will be the next chairman of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Consequently, with Republicans in the majority, Wyoming wields a great deal of power in Washington, for what is our least populous (500,000) but 10th largest state in land mass.

Obviously, it's quite a different world out here in the real West--politically and otherwise--than I've experienced in Massachusetts. My world in Wyoming, the Republican epicenter, provides a glimpse into how the political landscape has changed for those of us from the more heavily Democratic Northeast and other more urban, Democratic regions.

Wyomingites view the world very differently than Northeasterners do, it seems to me, both literally and figuratively, and much of it has to do with geography. Mostly due to the mining industry, but to the energy industry in general, Wyoming has enjoyed fiscal riches throughout the nascent 21st century. This alone places Wyoming among only three states that have experienced budget surpluses of late, and "surplus"--or abundance--is one way that Wyomingites view the world in general: abundance of many different things, in addition to a growing state budget and high employment rates.

The first thing a New Englander notices is the abundance of land--lots of land, and of course big sky. In many ways, Wyoming is still very much a sparsely populated, enormous frontier state. For example, the main street where our branch campus is located wasn't paved until the 1970s. Across the state, hunting, fishing, ranching, farming, and mining all remain very much a way of life. They account for just about all of the economy after tourism. (Yellowstone is now the most visited national park in the nation.)

Water, something New Englanders take for granted, is not in abundance, and is fought about politically the way guns and ammo were more than 100 years ago. Just about everyone owns a gun, while murders are rare. Churches are full on Sundays, and much of family life revolves around church-related activities. Is anybody (Democrats, that is) getting the point here? Wyomingites, largely Republican as they are, value these particular basics that helped make America great.

More to the point, Wyomingites value education, especially K-12 education. Wyoming boasts the highest high-school graduation rates in the nation, maybe giving Dems a hint regarding No Child Left Behind. Having no real urban center, something I miss a bit, has something to do with this success, however.

No abundance in the college-going rate here, though. It is among the lowest in the country. But Wyomingites, both Republicans and Democrats, would very much like to turn this around. The major obstacle is the positively booming economy--there are lots of jobs for high-school grads and others--and this is not projected to change any time soon. Therefore, part-time community-college attendance is looking better and better to industry, community and political leaders as a potential way to improve college-going rates in Wyoming.

Because there are far more jobs than people to fill them, workforce development is also a very high priority for Wyomingites, as it is for the national Republican leadership. My point should be obvious by now: In my opinion, working to improve college-going rates while also working to improve workforce-development initiatives bodes well for Republican control of both the U.S. Congress and the White House. So, for whatever disappointments have befallen Democrats since the election, my belief is that community colleges--as "America's colleges"--should fare very well under a second Bush administration.

One other difference that this New Englander finds Wonderlandish about Wyoming: Public higher education is both king and queen out here. There is not a single private college in Wyoming, though there is one proprietary technical college. Talk about culture shock! Public higher education is actually highly respected out here, and reasonably well funded as a result. (It could be better, of course.) I hope that some day the Northeast, as Democratic as it might be otherwise, may come to value public higher education half as much as Wyomingites do. So the future is not as bleak as Democrats might now believe--at least not when it comes to support for community colleges and higher education.

DR. KEVIN DRUMM PRESIDENT SHERIDAN COLLEGE AND THE NORTHERN WYOMING COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT SHERIDAN, WYO.