RICHMOND, Va. — Former President Bill Clinton has told Virginia Democrats that the party has won America's long-running culture war but has to make sure not to squander it with partisanship.

Clinton told more than 3,000 people at a party fundraiser that the nation's natural political base has shifted back to Democrats for the first time since 1968.

He says it did so thanks to protracted Republican mistakes and the belief that President Barack Obama represented the solution.

Clinton says Obama's election shows Americans at last are welcoming diversity and accepting differences.

That's the opposite of the political dynamic he said Richard Nixon first used in 1968 to lock in a white, conservative voting bloc that kept Virginia and the South reliably Republican for two generations.

Clinton says Democrats have won the great culture war that has divided America for 40 years, but warns that expectations of the party remain high.

He warned the state's party activists not to become so blinded by ideology that they abandon prudent governance.

His message brought the partisan crowd -- still revelling in the first Democratic presidential victory in Virginia since 1964 -- to its feet.