Stop Bashing Red States: The Invisible Blues

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

Some facts for blue-staters who want to secede from the union, or boycott red states in their entirety:

According to the latest USA Today numbers (updated 11/9), the total national vote for Kerry is 56,249,866.

Of those votes, almost half - 25,908,763 - were cast by voters in red states.

The lowest percentage of blue in a red state is Utah, with 26.4% voting for Kerry. The highest percentage is Iowa with 49.2%. The average percentage of blue voters among red states is 43.6%.

That's huge.

By contrast, 25,050,757 of Bush's 59,730,364 votes were cast in blue states. The average percentage of red voters among blue states is 42.9%.

The percentage of Bush voters in blue states is almost equal to the percentage of Kerry voters in red states. So just who is blue, and who is red?

That question is addressed on a site that caters to the GIS (Geographic Information Survey) community. Here, Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman of the University of Michigan take the well-known red/blue map and turn it into a cartogram that reflects voter preference by population.




The authors go further, using a map model developed by Robert Vanderbei at Princeton University that breaks down the vote by county. Unlike the county maps generally seen in the media, Vanderbei's model adds purple to indicate counties that went for Bush by a slim margin. When this map is converted into a cartogram, here is the result.



As the authors point out, in this population-adjusted map, the red counties occupy only a rather small portion of the total area, most of the country appearing either in blue or in shades of purple.

So let's stop bashing red states. They are packed with invisible blue voters. Let's focus on reaching out to them, and let's concentrate on boycotting Republican donors, not "Republican states."

More from the GIS article:
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/3823/


EDIT: Found and fixed an error in the percentage of Bush voters in blue states - sorry for the mistake.

[eleonora]

1. I feel like that last map

the US is on an acid trip

[Glenda]

16. LOLOL!!

:hi:

[southernlad]

2. Thank you

Arkansas is still a very wonderful and beautiful state. We were just barely red.

[goclark]

14. I think they stole Arkansas too!

When you said barely,my mind clicked in.

I have many friends from Arkansas.

Bill Clinton helped to teach your state how to vote Blue.

How close was your election?
Any voteing fraud reported.

My friend was shocked that it was Red!

[southernlad]

20. Me too..

I could not believe our state went Red. Everybody here excpet for a maybe 1 in 5 people supported Kerry and had a Kerry/Edwards sign in their yard.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I am boycotting republicans

now given that I do not know who happens to be red or blue in I don't know Vegas or Georgia, I will not go there

As is I now have added reasons not to buy prodocuts from two companeis, they are also republcian

I know, I know this is not red bashing as in red state, just red bahing as in republican. THey voted for bush, they can kiss my ass goodbye, as well as my dollars

I am also keeping my spending VERY LOCAL and to a minimal standard, why? the economy will crash, just a matter of time

[Stephanie]

13. I am boycotting REDS, not Red States

RED=You Voted for Bush

[RegexReader]

24. I see RED people!

Try living in a red state and get all the BS emails from the repugs in the office and come to here just to hear that everyone in a red state is stupid and a redneck. :(

It gets old,


RegexReader
$USA =~ s/Republican/Democrat/ig;

[rabid_nerd]

4. Nope...

Sorry...

Irreconcilable differences.

We did our job.

The purple people (Red State Democrats) didn't do theirs.

Want in a Blue state? Come on over.

Yeah, that's a love it or leave it mentality, but let everyone get through it for a while.

It's a phase.

[quaoar]

8. Oh really?

Red State Democrats let you down?

Kinda hard to win over a state when the campaign writes it off from the beginning as a lost cause and doesn't bother to run any ads or schedule any campaign appearances.

[Sputnik]

9. And yet you have

Rick Santorum for a Senator in your state.

Both of my U.S. Senators in my little red state are both Democrats.

I guess we've done our job here and you didn't do yours.

That works both ways.

Right?

I don't think you know just how hard we worked in the red and purple states. Your state got many, many visits from Kerry. We didn't. The campaign wrote us off. Our state party had to pick up all the slack while the Bush ads continues to run here ad nauseum.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

11. It may be a phase, but it's a useless, self-defeating one

I grew up in a blue state long before this red/blue bs began. My family has been here for generations. I'm established here personally and professionally, and there are many reasons I couldn't move even if I was politically motivated to do so.

I will extend that same consideration to almost 26 million others who happen to have been born and raised in red states. I have no irreconcilable differences with people who vote for the same ideals as I hold.

[havocmom]

5. From someone who is pretty damned blue in a red state, many thanks.

Those are interesting maps. Much better than the county map by the Princeton chap who listed my home county as 100% GOP despite the fact that there are registered DEMS here and Kerry got votes from Republicans too.

I resist, therefore, I am.

[Old and In the Way]

6. Kinda look like some red slime is attacking the healthy blue fish

Perhaps this is the feared "red tide" micro-organism that is shutting down large parts of our coastal fishing areas.....

[Qanisqineq]

7. thanks for facts to back up what I've been thinking

and have tried to say in the past. All this "red state"/"blue state" crap is so annoying and lame. Some people seem to have this delusion that blue states are totally blue and red states are totally red except for one or two of us.

[kayell]

12. Ironically, they are writing off huge numbers of minorities down here

who are supposed to be our base, and the people whose rights we are sworn to protect. Just look at that swath of blue along the Mississippi Delta.

[Benhurst]

15. Yeah. I live in NC and there are millions of us down here.

Well, maybe not millions; but hundreds of thousands.

Or at least thousands.

Dammit, I don't know how many there are; but I know SEVERAL.

SO THERE!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

18. NC voted 43.6% blue

According to USA Today, there are 1,484,158 of you. Or at least, they're Kerry voters.

:hi:

[Benhurst]

19. The percentage is not nearly so high in the part of NC where

I live; but then we vote on blackbox machines, so there's no way of telling.

[Maestro]

10. I'm one of the blues

in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rockydem]

17. fascinating map

it truly shows how easy we could win the comin elections...

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

22. THANK YOU for seeing that! Blues are not fringe voters

clinging to the edges of the country. We're all over, everywhere, and we should take comfort and strength from that knowledge.

:hi:

[xxqqqzme]

21. see that chuck of CA red in the 3rd map

Orange and Riverside counties.

[Pithlet]

23. I posted my bitter anti-Red state rant shortly after Nov 2

But, I have since calmed down. I do think we're still getting bluer overall in this country, even in the red states. I saw maybe one or two Gore signs in 2000, and no bumper stickers. I saw hundreds of both, for Kerry/Edwards this time around. I'm still seeing them. Even in rural Tennessee. People have just been angry. Give us time. Election 2004 was a bump in the road, but not the end, and that will become more obvious over time.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

25. Red and Blue states are an illusion

If we got rid of the electoral college we would have no blue or red states to divide us.

When you examine the vote in terms of population instead of geography, you see that red and blue states do not exist. Only the most solid Democratic/Republican strongholds maintain their coloration. Look at the percentages of "red" and "blue" voters who voted for the opposition:



There's no point to lashing out at people because of where they live. And there's no reason why Democrats should ignore blue voters because they live in red states. Get rid of the electoral college and target the voters, not the state.

Edit to fix chart typo

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

26. .

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

27. ...aaaaaand one more kick for anyone rational who's still here