smokerblog

Red States, Blue States, Purple States

So just how divided is this country? Jon Stewart seemed to get it last night in his interview with Charles Schumer, asking the NY Senator if this election doesn't represent a cultural backlash: bans on gay marriage as revenge for being subjected to Will & Grace, for example. Schumer obviously didn't get it as he bumbled through a lame joke about Bonanza reruns. If I can find the transcript maybe I'll post it.

So let's look at some maps! Via Planned Obsolescence, here are some maps that illustrate the red state-blue state divide:

1. stars vs. stripes
2. Canada 2.0
3. color-coded by margin of victory
4. color-coded by county
5. a combination of 3 & 4
6. RE-UPDATE:more red/blue/purple but charted to represent population differences

Map #4 is interesting to me in how clearly you can pick out Democratic constituencies across the country. Urban areas are a no-brainer, but check out the Jackson Hole-Yellowstone corner of Wyoming, the Native American reservations in Arizona and the Dakotas, the industrial/coal towns of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania, and the college towns in Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Georgia, etc.

Map #5 is a bit more hopeful; it looks like all the red and blue people can coexist after all.

UPDATE: Jason Kottke gets it too: Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid.