Are To, Am Not
Rednecks versus Bluebloods
Am I the only one fed up with this continual Red State, Blue State rhetoric? They talk like the blue states were 100% Kerry and the red states were 100% Bush. I’ve heard statements that the “Red states are dumb morons” or the “Blue states should secede” from the Union. Looking at state-by-state data on the USA Today site and comparing ONLY voters for Kerry and Bush, I see that 20 states have a 10% or less difference between the two men. Another 14 states are separated by 20% or less. This means 34 out of 51 states have a 60-40 or LESS split. This represents 81% of all Bush-Kerry voters in the nation. Going even further in 47 of the 51 states the losing party represents AT LEAST 33% of the population. So the next time someone talks about a Red or Blue state remember that at least 1/3rd of the population voted the opposite way.
So was this a mandate for President Bush? Depends on what you mean by a mandate. Numerically speaking there is no way this is a mandate (Bush captured almost 3% more of the vote than Kerry). From a political standpoint it was a solid win but not what I consider a mandate.
However we did see a mandate in the states voting against homosexual trends. The repercussions on homosexual issues are going to be vile and ugly by both sides, after all there was a mandate. God save us from ourselves.
And the general sat and the lines on the map
Am I the only one fed up with this continual Red State, Blue State rhetoric? They talk like the blue states were 100% Kerry and the red states were 100% Bush. I’ve heard statements that the “Red states are dumb morons” or the “Blue states should secede” from the Union. Looking at state-by-state data on the USA Today site and comparing ONLY voters for Kerry and Bush, I see that 20 states have a 10% or less difference between the two men. Another 14 states are separated by 20% or less. This means 34 out of 51 states have a 60-40 or LESS split. This represents 81% of all Bush-Kerry voters in the nation. Going even further in 47 of the 51 states the losing party represents AT LEAST 33% of the population. So the next time someone talks about a Red or Blue state remember that at least 1/3rd of the population voted the opposite way.
So was this a mandate for President Bush? Depends on what you mean by a mandate. Numerically speaking there is no way this is a mandate (Bush captured almost 3% more of the vote than Kerry). From a political standpoint it was a solid win but not what I consider a mandate.
However we did see a mandate in the states voting against homosexual trends. The repercussions on homosexual issues are going to be vile and ugly by both sides, after all there was a mandate. God save us from ourselves.
To get a better perspective of how equal the votes were in this election here is a cartogram of the voting showing county-by-county in relation to the population. Very few true blue or true red spots. Select the map to see more information and a larger image
And the general sat and the lines on the map
moved from side to side.
Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down.
But in the end it's only round and round.
Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
- from the song "Us and Them" performed by Pink Floyd, words by Waters and Wright (c) 1972
posted by Quinqube at 17:33
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