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Mushy colors, and false dichotomies
I live in a "Blue" state. I (had I been allowed to) voted for Kerry.
But painting me as being a raging Democrat fails to properly depict me. I am against the sorts of gun control that Party favors. I'm also a bit middling in my views of regulation, and taxes.
If you were to color me with balance, I am a muddy purple, more blue than red, with streaks of whatever color one wishes to use for social libertarianism.
Which is true of Texas, and Ohio, and Tennesee, and all the rest.
Take Texas (the object of scorn in some of those maps of frustration). She cast more votes for Texas than New York did, than Ohio did, than Pennsylvania did. In fact she cast more votes for Kerry than any state save California.
The country split, almost straight down the middle, and that split was reflected in almost every state. Bitching and moaning about the Red statesis not beneficial. It steals focus, and it risks pissing off the people in those states who didn't vote for Bush.
The unpleasant aspects of the Republican Platform are not going away, but they might find another stealth candidate; someone who look good, and then turns out to be as bad (or worse, entrenchment breeds complacency, and unfettered power {which both House and Senate, combined with Executive, and a tolerant Judiciary will only make exacerbate} and that may aggravate contempt), and we need the people who voted for Kerry this time around to vote with us the next time.
Worse, that sort of villification plays into the meme of the "hateful left" (which is being astroturfed into a real problem).
Don't let the great size of the map be used to distort the squeaker this election was.
Paint it in shades of purple, from sea to shining sea.
But painting me as being a raging Democrat fails to properly depict me. I am against the sorts of gun control that Party favors. I'm also a bit middling in my views of regulation, and taxes.
If you were to color me with balance, I am a muddy purple, more blue than red, with streaks of whatever color one wishes to use for social libertarianism.
Which is true of Texas, and Ohio, and Tennesee, and all the rest.
Take Texas (the object of scorn in some of those maps of frustration). She cast more votes for Texas than New York did, than Ohio did, than Pennsylvania did. In fact she cast more votes for Kerry than any state save California.
The country split, almost straight down the middle, and that split was reflected in almost every state. Bitching and moaning about the Red statesis not beneficial. It steals focus, and it risks pissing off the people in those states who didn't vote for Bush.
The unpleasant aspects of the Republican Platform are not going away, but they might find another stealth candidate; someone who look good, and then turns out to be as bad (or worse, entrenchment breeds complacency, and unfettered power {which both House and Senate, combined with Executive, and a tolerant Judiciary will only make exacerbate} and that may aggravate contempt), and we need the people who voted for Kerry this time around to vote with us the next time.
Worse, that sort of villification plays into the meme of the "hateful left" (which is being astroturfed into a real problem).
Don't let the great size of the map be used to distort the squeaker this election was.
Paint it in shades of purple, from sea to shining sea.
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The shades of purple through the Central Valley of California is some of the more heartening information I've gotten today.
TK
Cartograms
The one that is comparable to the above is:
Re: Cartograms
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And, yeah, if people keep bitching, they're going to push me even further away from the parties than I am now.
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Which is patent bullshit. The only reason the election was close (and Bush got 1 vote more then the required 270 in the College, and 1 percent more than Kerry) is because a lot of people live in those blue states.
But the vast areas (of sparsely populated read) are used to beat up on those concetrations of people. As if not having a couple of acres per person somehow makes their numbers less important.
I'm angry, but I'm Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher, angry. We've let a bunch of pundits and wag (no small number of which are scala) take us by the nose and pinch it shut so we can't taste the shit they are feedng us. The Sean Hannitys, the Ann Coulters, the Davids, Savage and Brooks, they have the bully pulpit, and they use it to gloat over their victories, while the whine as though they were losers.
And I don't know what to do about it. I see the people who get all teary eyed at the "Left" for being mean, but claim to have never heard of the organised meanness of the right (and I mean that in both senses of the word, viscious and nasty, as well as small in mind and spirit) and I despair.
Where have they been? More to the point, how do I lift the scales from their eyes? I know most of them aren't reading this.
So, such little echo chambers as mine, must turn that to out-reach, and do it in a way which makes the people in Kansas see where their interests lie.
TK
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It's useful to remember that it's not just red/blue, just as a lot of things aren't black/white. I do hope that as the initial shock wears off, people will be able to moderate the tone of discourse somewhat--and I don't mean they should roll over and show their bellies to the Alpha, just pick and chose their words for the fight to come more carefully. More people in this country are centrists than we realize sometimes, and the manner in which they're approached often does as much to decide where they land as the specific issues. The Republican Party has been very good at approaching them, which is why they've gained so much ground.
thank you
Thank you x 2...
Mapping the States
(Anonymous) 2004-11-10 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)for a series of interesting maps of the states --
votes by county (showing Bush carried the rural and
suburban votes but not the urban votes in most states).
votes by county shaded to show if a candidate's
victory was overwhelming or marginal
votes by state or county with size proportionate to
population
There are many different ways to see this election.
--Lee Gold, lee.gold@comcast.net
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And yes...what you said about the meanness fingerpointing. Yeah.
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