Ecce: The electoral impact of the densely populated “coastal elites” and urban dwellers on our recent national elections.
Apart from the aforementioned concentration of solidly blueish areas, one can discern the I-95 corridor down the east coast, the Mississippi River valley to the south and the Rust Belt to the north – pockets of endemic economic disadvantage always on the lookout for some of that OPM sweep up. Middle class “tax cuts” being not quite the thing for that 38% of us who don’t pay any taxes to begin with.
In southeast Florida we see the impact of northern retirees living on a fixed income, while noting that the Miami area, el nuevo capital de Cuba libre, is not as red as it used to be. To the southwest and west we espy the consequences of a party’s perceived nativist antipathy towards the fastest growing minority in the country. One that, handled more deftly, considering their sympathies, could have made useful political allies.
Of course, great swaths of that solidly red middle are in the relatively less populated flyover country. Here, the scope of all that demography when biased for population weight:
Welcome to the wilderness, GOP.
(H/T to Professors Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi and Mark Newman of the University of Michigan, via occasional reader OP, who also points out that there are some pretty cool embedded links potentially useful to the school aged among us, and a reference to Gimp, a freeware Photoshop alternative.)
Our Nation looks very ugly, and especially scary when population density is pictured.
The pleb’s have voted for bread and circus’s.
I see lots of purple worth fighting for…
Very cool. The importance is in the message, but I enjoy the method as well (says the charts and maps geek, often found at urbancartography and strangemaps).
As a child, completely taken with National Geographic maps. As a teen I thought aerial photography would’ve been the best career ever (planes AND cameras). As a young sailor, thought those TARPS geeks had it pretty good. These days? Slightly addicted to Google Earth.
Nice to see the I-95 mess ends around Charleston. J-ville is solidly red, with the exception of Corrine Browns district.
The solution is long term, at best. It begins with both improvements in the system of educating the young, to include those in college, by EDUCATING them rather than brainwashing them to the leftist viewpoint, and a change in the way conservatism is viewed. Given the mainstream media bent leftward, it’s difficult to know how the latter can be accomplished as, due to years of repetition, when the masses hear “conservative” they think ‘racist’, ‘bigot’, or (insert democrats’ epithet of choice here).
I don’t see this particular problem being remedied within even a decade unless there is some event that shows the democrat hard left for what it is and how it’s wrong that it has been supported by the MSM. Perhaps some person will come along, as Reagan did, with a strong ability to stay on message and to communicate that message for a long enough period so that it penetrates. Or the young being educated to think rather than to be hard-wired to the auto-lefty position, will have their own grass roots movement to swing things to the right of center.
The whole of it scares me. What I think we are in for is the inmates voting in the people who promise the goodies to them. Like, for instance, the politicians we have now in California and in D.C. Which means lots of trouble ahead.
The Blue zone looks as though it coincides nicely with areas associated with corruption.
What the heck happened with Vermont? Yousta be a fairly conservative state. There must be something in the icecream.
Barnett has made the observation that political jurisdictions defined by straight borders make for inherently unstable states.
Thats pretty much the US of A from Mexico to Canada.
Unless there is some kind of sane resolution to the inexorable “Latinization” of America, then it can only mean trouble.
In the past, the Italians, Irish, Chinese, et al, were able to assimilate…and didn’t remain in a balkanizing state of celebratory “Diversity”…into a growing and vibrant nation.
We’re older now and our economy more sedate with a good many of the up and coming “good” jobs in places other than here.
Everybody can’t work at WalMart….
Hmm.
I always thought red represented heat and life within the organism, whereas blue represented cold and lifelessness.
Woe is me. I live in such a lifeless part of the country; left coast.
Awesome site. Bookmarked.
Really hammers it home that it’s “one person one vote” vice “votes per square mile”.
What I note in particular is the seeming anachronism of the Electoral College. Let it be a straight up majority vote, rather than those of us in all-or-nothing battleground states having a disproportionate amount of leverage. Of course, then nobody would EVER campaign in Iowa. . .
All that matters is NY state and clones, states adjoining L. Michigan and the coastal fruit & nut states on the west coast….
As clearly defined as the Mason-Dixon line.
b2
Not-so 1390:
Just noticed your :
“Let it be a straight up majority vote, rather than those of us in all-or-nothing battleground states having a disproportionate amount of leverage”
Y.G.S.M. Never.
Can’t you see the Founders intent with the electoral college? Why should the lemmings control the eagles? Think about it. You get a below for basic headwork!
b2
Vermont is full of the environmentally conscious. With Al Gore they switched sides.
God … I look at my neck of the woods and I despair. I know it’s not my fault – I voted for McCain.
But – it’s just so damned blue. All over. I’m so sorry.
*sigh*
SteveC,
You’re on it there. We’ve abandoned the field of conflict in key centers of power while for a couple generations progressives have persisted in targeting & controlling those centers of power.
Schools and Media. Gotta win with ideas and information.
Lex,
Ever thought about teaching young heads full of mush? Best high school teacher I had was retired Army Colonel — he really captured our imaginations with his history classes.
Maybe I should lead by example and start planning a transition from engineering to teaching.
Where is the Kool Aide Map Lex? It is appropriate and timely.
re b2, post 10: While checking some other maps (as incidentally motivated by our host) I found the positively hilarious “New Yorkers Map of America” over at urbancartography. Snorted on my screen a little.
No affilitions/ties/plugs for the afforementioned site. Just sharing.
My apologies. The old dog thinks he has learned the notsonew trick: link to the map here
If it works, the noob will be so pleased as to be besides himself (whaddadoof).
SE FL… here’s the deal. We have all the retirees in PB and Broward Counties from NY and NJ. Those are both heavily democratic states and so that’s how they vote. The native Floridians still vote Republican.
Tampa area (SW/Central FL) , I-75 corridor, you have Michigan retirees. Also, University of S FL is there… 40,000 college students.
As for Miami, all the Cubans and Venezuelans voted for McCain. As my Cuban friends put it, “We learned with Fidel” and as my Venezuelan friends put it, “Obama sounds like Chavez sounded…” The rest of the Latins voted for Obama. There is a heavy Haitian population down there as well.
What the Dems are going to find though is that they don’t truly own the Latin communities. The Republicans just lost trust and touch. It is time for the Republicans to figure out how to reach back out to them… as the Latin communities are very deeply religious, but they are more complex than that and neither party should take them lightly or take their votes for granted.
You guys should have watched Schwarzenegger’s interview on CNN today. He hit the mark when he stated that the Republican party has a lot to be proud of-but the road home is in the middle. His quote of Eisenhower about “room to drive” was most appropriate.
It will also get better when more people understand , as Dave Barry wrote, people become “capable of understanding a concept that we seem to have lost, which is that people who disagree with you politically are not necessarily evil or stupid. My parents and their friends took it for granted that most people were fundamentally decent and wanted the best for the country.”
So called “conservatism” ( which is really not conservative at all) rests on a principle that is fundamentally opposed to that. You can’t scapegoat folks and then ask them to vote for you. Well you can, but don’t be surprised when they don’t.
Skippy,
That’s the most BS thing I’ve ever heard you say. Otherwise, everyone would have voted Republican this time around.
I was referring to your last paragraph, btw.
QED.
Not really Skippy-san.
Some people just refuse to admit that they’re democrats and they want to make you agree with them. No conservative will claim Schwarzenegger as one of us after we voted him into office after holding a special election to toss out his predecessor for insisting that we needed to have a $38 billion deficit. Under Schwarzenegger the deficit and budget gap just got worse and worse. He’s a democrat, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody based on who he married and the fact that he commutes every single day in a jet to his office.
I have a complaint about the comments and the tenor. Everybody talks about Republicans in the 3rd person with the exception of a couple…
Major parties win elections (ask TR)..Not any conservatives or any hybrid libertarian-contrarians. That’s why I have jettisoned all traditional conservative mouthpieces from my read list like Will, Buchanan, Noonan, etc.
BTW, lot’s of organizations are like that- Everyone loves the Boy Scouts o’course, but few join. Same with the military…Anything hard, it’s always easy to sit back and be sniping observors…Or smug Independents (the Jello Party of the Mainly Ignorant) who remind me of Toyota hybrid drivers attitudes.
Everyone of you better hope and pray the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln & Reagan, comes back…As we have just seen it takes an organization and grassroots to win a national election. IMO, if you don’t help that process then your opinion ain’t worth squat about what “they” ought to do.
b2
b2,
First: I’m an Eagle Scout, and was punted out of my troop due to a lack of meeting attendance. The condition which created my inability to attend? Boot camp. But I was in BSA in various forms for 11 years before joining the Navy. Furthermore, I’d toyed with the idea of not enlisting and becoming a professional Scout. (Meaning, working at Philmont or one of the regional camps in the southwest.)
Second: My wife and I own a hybrid Civic. Insofar as us being smug: whatever. Don’t hate on us because we can use carpool lanes by ourselves. Actually, hating hybrid owners is so passe. You just need to convert.
I’ll be running off to hide now.
I am with B2 on this, the ‘they’ happen to be ‘us’ and we need to start putting names to the bad or poor actors out there that don’t hold up to the Conserative litmus test. I for one have voted 4 times (in two different elections) aginst Arlen Spector as my senator from PA – and two of those times I was voting for his democrat opponent.
Its time that RINO’s get the boot. If you can’t stand for something (all of something) than you don’t stand for anything.
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Come out DrewC..I ain’t gonna hurt ya..
You obviously missed the point. Hybrid driver attitudes, BSA-yes/no or even military service yea/nay have nothing to do with my basic point re the republican party being discussed in 3rd person. I am glad you were/are a BS and save fuel driving a hybrid- really. Didn’t mean to “single-you out” with my analogies.
BTW, I scrupulously avoid driving in bluezone areas w/car pool lanes!
b2
Sigh, with a swish of the metaphorical pen, without a thought as to what pain it would cause, Lex has reduced me to occasional reader OP. On the other hand, such an announcement would probably be greeted with shouts of joy by some of his correspondents
To my mind the series of maps that are the most striking are those published by the NY Times. The one that is most telling is the county by county analysis where the question was what party and where showed increases in votes.
Meanwhile, Nate Silver at fivethirthyeight.com compares Obama ’08 to Clinton ’92, and (sigh, ouch X 5) is starting to track Senate and House races of 2010.
Some other graphs can be found at Red State Blue State… At the bottom of the link are a series of “hot” buttons that will lead to further interpretation of data by graphs.
Keep up the good work Skippy-san, the Lord rewards those of pure heart.
Bah, humbug, Moi, also pure of heart, relegated to the trash heap of occasional reader…
OP:
As a card carrying member of LORC (Lex’s Occasional Reader Club) I’m gonna have to take exception to you referring to us as a “trash heap.” I’ll have you know that this august group contains at least one of Lex’s Babes and a few members with IQs exceeding their combined finger/toe count. You should be proud to be a member. Welcome aboard!!
Thank the Lord for your comment xairboss (alias) E Yat . I kept hearing various strains of the pipe in my head. At time it was All Hands on Deck, at other times it was Pipe Down, and every once in a while I heard the Still, but that was usually the House Engineer pointing a finger, and repeating the instructions three times, while getting ready to hand me a tool bag. I thought I was developing some strange variant of auditory hallucinations, but thanks to your kind words, my sanity is preserved, and I welcome the pipe haul to trim the sails of the new vessel I have joined.
Pssssttt: Anybody that wishes to question my sanity will have to stand in line…
b2,
I knew you’re post was meant to draw a contrast, and didn’t take any offense to said. Also, you’re right to avoid the HOV lanes, they’re likely filled with large displacement SUV’s piloted by people that have no business on a tricycle, let alone something that could easily admit a steam catapult or two on the hood.
What I forgot to append to that post above was that I agree with the heart of what you’re saying – that it’s silly to discuss the GOP in third person terms.
Reminds me of how dead people are discussed ’round certain parts.
Moving on to something else, probably the crux of the post and the ongoing discussion here. I suppose you could point fingers at me and call me a RINO. I actually don’t care for aspects of neoconservative (Bush-Cheney versus Reagan-Goldwater) canon. Furthermore, I’m not sure that questioning certain parts of a political philosophy indicates disloyalty. Smacks of Maoist “Cultural Revolutions” and whatnot if you ask me.
Not that I’m accusing anyone of being a Maoist, or a Marxist, or anything else here. Rather, I’m opposed to the idea that one size fits all and you’re with “us” or against “us.” Asking these sorts of questions (meaning ‘why is it like this’) I think is one of the reasons that we’re (meaning the United States) here in the first place.
Echo everyone’s comments above about a serious requirement for vigorous debate in schools. Perhaps an inversion of who gets the lion’s share of funding – football versus debate – is in order. I’m also loathe to say that the educational system being dominated by someone’s idea of “right v wrong” is going to get us everywhere.
I recently took a modern American history course here in San Diego and was rather happy to have a wide (politically speaking) spread of people present. Made for interesting discussions and I think people walked away from that knowing more than they would have in the event a single perspective was solely dominant.
So far I’ve been lucky to only have had two teachers (one liberal and one conservative) who dominated the sphere of what was considered acceptable. I chafed at the restrictions in both places and wondered what about the other side was so wrong.
Hence, I claim no party affiliation not as a rejection of both parties, but because I refuse to buy into the notion that I need to “brand” my views and constrain them to a single side. If this makes me a traitor? So be it. I’d rather be independent than an automaton capable of only preprogrammed responses.
Flame me if you want, but it won’t change the fact that I won’t unquestioningly drink the Kool Aid – no matter if it’s red, blue, green, mauve, or plaid.
DrewC,
It’s your choice, no- right, being an independent..I wasn’t flaming YOU, per se, but don’t expect a candidate acceptable to you to ever win national election. That is based on your individual by-in to the process, x millions of like minded “Independents”. That also includes next time, too.
Winning takes an organization as I’ve pointed out ad naseum. As imperfect as it is the Republican Party provides the vehicle. “Man in the ring” so to speak. Call it “branding” if you want. Strap hangers are welcome but it always better to have affiliated members, wouldn’t you say? Of course being a registered independent it makes it easier for all here, including our host, to say I told you so- post defeat. Form of rationalization I’d say…IMO, independents aren’t fully vested in the process-they order ala carte all the time..
Where your use of the the word “traitor” comes in I’m not clear on? That is your word. Is there some guilt there? I hate to be mischaracterized on my opinion. That really would pi$$ me off. Do you really think I have ever drunk any Kool-Aid? Why would you think I wasn’t independent within the party? Good. Glad we have that cleared up…
BTW, I clicked your link and read your piece 0n the election. Not much I don’t agree with on the surface. However, McCain was never my first choice, in 2000 or 2008. Although I bleed blue just like that retired CAPT and serving Senator that affiliation is secondary when it comes to who I vote for..Lastly look up the word politics I suggest you read the definition for politicas in the Greek politikos.
b2
DrewC,
It’s your choice, no- right, being an independent..I wasn’t flaming YOU, per se, but don’t expect a candidate acceptable to you to ever win national election. That is based on your individual by-in to the process, x millions of like minded “Independents”. That also includes next time, too.
Winning takes an organization as I’ve pointed out ad naseum. As imperfect as it is the Republican Party provides the vehicle. “Man in the ring” so to speak. Call it “branding” if you want. Strap hangers are welcome but it always better to have affiliated members, wouldn’t you say? Of course being a registered independent it makes it easier for all here, including our host, to say I told you so- post defeat. Form of rationalization I’d say…IMO, independents aren’t fully vested in the process-they order ala carte all the time..
Where your use of the the word “traitor” comes in I’m not clear on? That is your word. Is there some guilt there? I hate to be mischaracterized on my opinion. That really would pi$$ me off. Do you really think I have ever drunk any Kool-Aid? Why would you think I wasn’t independent within the party? Good. Glad we have that cleared up…
BTW, I clicked your link and read your piece 0n the election. Not much I don’t agree with on the surface. However, McCain was never my first choice, in 2000 or 2008. Although I bleed blue just like that retired CAPT and serving Senator that affiliation is secondary when it comes to who I vote for..Lastly look up the word politics I suggest you read the definition for politicas in the Greek politikos.
b2
b2,
I wasn’t attempting to apply the “traitor” label to what you said at all, as I’m more than certain you and I are on the same page here. What I object to (not your comment) was that people are now labeling anyone that had party affiliation with the GOP in the past as less loyal to the cause for not having toed the line this time around.
You’re right though that being independent makes for an easier post-game. However, I think that it makes for a harder process (if the person is doing what they’re supposed to as a voter) during the election season because you need to make objective comparisons based on substantiative positions put forth by the candidates.
I don’t feel guilty – other than what an Irish-Catholic upbringing delivers to the table on a daily basis.
I did not mean to cast any aspersions on you or your piece. What I wrote here was more a series of musings on what has been discussed above and elsewhere with regard to the election. What I was saying was more addressed to the general audience here (who can get a little vicious on occasion) versus to you specifically.
For the record, I’ve a significant amount of respect for you and 100% of the other regular posters here. I wouldn’t do anything to intentionally raise anyone’s ire. Please accept my apologies if I did anger or offend in any way.
Unless we’re talking about helicopters versus fighters and who has the greater share of God’s grace. In which case, fight’s on.
Sorry to interupt the dialogue with drivel but I too am proud to be a LORC.
Same as XAirBoss and Yak who both look like they’re using the same barber.
Yak- superannuated, ever so gracefully since your flying days!
I blame it on a healthy lifestyle.
BTW, I’m coming out with my own line of “Maui Yak” shades.