Mon. Nov 15, 2004
Red Blue Bull
I know some people have moved on to talking about purple, or are dissecting the two primary colors at the county level, but there are still a disturbing number of people talking about states in pure red or pure blue (and pure bigotry). Put together, they think they form little regions that they somehow see as havens of like minded souls, or dens of hell.
I suppose it’s comforting, simple, and lends itself to quickly heated rhetoric. For some, it sounds like a great idea to somehow just dump those pesky red states, leaving only blue. Or vice versa.
25.73 million votes, 46% of Kerry’s total, came from red states from which some now talk of seceding. And speaking of secession, and those who vulgarly denigrate the South electorally, 26% of Kerry’s national vote total came from the South. By all means, let’s dump them, too.
That would leave you with firmly blue enclaves like California … where 4.4 million people, 44% of the state … gasp ... voted for Bush! In fact, in those sacred liberal regions of New England and the West Coast, we find that 15% of Bush’s national vote total came from those states. If you tally up all the “blue” states, 41.4% of Bush’s votes came from within those states.
Even if you look at the candidates’ home states, we not only don’t find pure red or blue, we don’t even find the American Standard of “two thirds majority rules.” Kerry won Massachusetts 62-37, and Bush won Texas 61-38.
Yet people talk of the right wing morality of the center of the country, or the religiously motivated in the South, or the socialist leanings of the West Coast, or the liberal elitism in the Northeast … if they’re kind. It has often descended to purely bigoted terms.
And as is always the case with bigotry, it’s dead wrong. If there is a divide in this country, you can’t reduce it to such simplistic geographic terms. Not when 2.8 million Texans voted for Kerry, and 2.75 million New Yorkers voted for Bush. You can accept that we are a near mixture, state by state, city by city, county by county, and put up your ugly broad brush, or you can move on to the next logical step of your current dementia.
Ethnic cleansing.
Published 01:05AM, Mon, Nov 15 2004
Category: Politics
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Peanut Gallery
I don’t mind when they have trouble figuring out where the red and blue dots go in my neighborhood. It’s when they paint the local government a certain color that makes me see red.
“More than 100 people gathered shoulder-to-shoulder at Kennesaw’s City Hall to cheer on their City Council as it passed a resolution supporting God.
The north Cobb County city that has long been a battleground in the culture wars fired another shot Monday after the council unanimously approved a resolution to “urge all American citizens to proclaim to every level of government . . . its responsibility to publicly recognize God as the foundation of our national heritage . . .” It follows similar action in metro area governments embroiled in disputes over Ten Commandments displays in government buildings.”
Mayor Church said when interviewed by the news media that “people around here don’t like being told what to do”. Well, yeeeaaaaahhh. I sure as hell don’t.
Huh. So in Kennesaw, which has a population of 21,675 (2000 census), religion is subject to majority rules, and a whopping 100 people (less than half of a percent of the population) came out to support it?
Well, it fits right in with this whole red/blue divide. In fact, Kennesaw may be a trend setter in this regard, at the forefront of the revolution. It was two decades ago they passed a law requiring citizens to own a gun, and now they enforce the “responsibility to publicly recognize God as the foundation of our national heritage.” (Heaven forbid they read the words of our First President ... the heathen).
Of course, Kennesaw is not an entirely red town, but I’m afraid you’ve now become my “canary in a coalmine,” Richard. When they put you on the road like a Kosovar, I’ll know the cleansing has begun (of course, in your case, there may be a harsher treatment … “he was a hippie at Woodstock … Burn Him!!!”)
Should you have to put your possessions in a bag, the bag on a stick, and your feet on the road, head south. There are a few blue enclaves in Fulton and DeKalb County that should be safe until the Legislature goes into session in January, at which time I expect they’ll be ex-communicated from the state, and broken up for parts.
Sniff. I remember a time (happier days?) when I felt I was cursed to be living in a district that couldn’t seem to get rid of the pox of Cynthia McKinney. Hah! As my old friend Burak used to say when you brought up almost any circumstance: “Things could be worse”. I think you’re right about January, though.
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Bringing it down from the county level, there are two blue dots in my house. One one side of us there are two dots, one of each color. On the other side, there are also two dots, one of each color. Right across the street is a red dot. Diagonally in one direction are two more blue dots. The other direction, a couple of red dots. Down the street in one direction… Well, I guess you get the picture. Where are they going to draw the lines in my neighborhood?