Red States voted for Bush. They wanted Bush. Blue states didn't

[bigtree]

Why do we assume that these Bush voters are deep thinkers with the best interests of the country in mind when they voted?

Why should we form any campaign around polls taken where they describe what 'red' staters wanted in this election? I mean, c'mon, can we really take what these states want seriously? They get the majority of our tax dollars in aid and relief and pay less than the blue states, according to reports. Our party would provide these red staters with health insurance for all, real prescription drug solutions, aid for schools and higher education, fiscal sanity . . .

These red states may be at risk of terrorist attacks, but it was our liberal leaning state of New York and our unrepresented (state) of Washington, D.C. that got hit by al-Qaeda. Why do should we form our anti-terrorism policy around these untouched state's fears?

These red states aren't paying as much for our nation's needs as the blue states and they seem to be at less risk of attack by foreign terrorists (at least so far). Why are we pandering to them on the issue of terrorism? Do these red staters really care about the satety of New Yorkers or D.C residents?

Folks in these 'red' areas need to give heed to the concerns and remedies put forth by folks in those states who have borne most of the financial burden and experiential anxiety during this Bush era of increased terrorism and economic disaster.

Aside from the fact that these red state voters vote overwhelmingly for republicans, and we want them to vote for Democrats, do these republican leaning red staters have anything different from blue state Democrats worth emulating or adopting?

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

1. VOTED BLUE IN A RED STATE.

[bigtree]

3. bless you

you're apparently not alone, just (temporarily) outnumbered.

[kcwayne]

2. Warmer winters would be about it

or maybe really good Tex-Mex food, and Lone Star beer.

[StClone]

4. Lone star Beer?

I know that Wisconsin has better beer than Texas. Point Beer for instance has been picked twice as best in the country.

http://www.pointbeer.com/brewery.php

[kcwayne]

10. I love Leinenkugal

but to get the full kick ass effect of a hot picante sauce, you have to drink crappy beer like Lone Star with it. It loosens up your bowels so that the picante washes out easily and doesn't burn up your colon.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. VOTED BLUE IN A RED STATE!

BLUE AT HEART! :-)

[bigtree]

11. diamond in the rough

[Stevious]

6. duh. ;-)

Of course the red state residents were willing to re-elect Bush, where’s the risk for them? What’s the likelihood that they’ll be the next target of the backlash from Bush's disasterous foreign policy? Terrorists will surely pick on NYC (again), Washington DC (again), Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco before they target a city like Dayton or Des Moines

[minerva50]

7. The Pentagon is in (red) Virginia.

[bigtree]

14. true. my mistake

Still I would quibble that D.C. was the target. If you live around here, near Key Bridge, around Alexandria, you feel like you're in D.C.. Watergate is on that side. Falls Church has a Maryland feel. I've lived in MD all my life and I've never felt the least bit southern, despite all of our southern attributes. Eastern shore is pretty southern though.

I get your point but I stand behind my premise. Do red staters really think northern VA is full of good ole boys? These government employed yuppies go around with with gun racks on their SUVS, and there is a definite Dallas Cowboy fan club here, but they don't really see these folks as brother to Bubba out there. Do y'all?

[minerva50]

20. I'm also from MD,

But I used to work at a (DoD) office in Alexandria; we've since moved the office to DC. VA sure felt red to me, but that may be due to knowing that most of my (Republican) co-workers live there. Due to the Pentagon and the Defense industry Beltway Bandits, the VA suburbs are much different (at least to me) than the MD suburbs, which have NIH, Dept of Agriculture, etc.

[bigtree]

26. lots of government employees round here, more than with Clinton

I guess it's true that most of Virginia feels a southern separation from it's blue neighbors, but I would be surprised if the areas closest to MD and D.C. feel that southern pull enough to support the GOP to any great effect. Haven't checked the numbers though.

[BOSSHOG]

8. I live in Mississippi - FUCK IT

Ignorant poor white trash (bush base) who care not about this country live in Mississippi and all they live for is Jesus, Beer and incest. Fuck them. If at all possible, pull all blue state money out of here. Cut off their welfare and food stamps. Fuck the ignorant "red" necks. Cut the liberal umbilical cord and listen to the sorry trash in this state whine.

HEY FELLOW MISSISSIPIANS - I VOTED FOR KERRY DON'T BLAME ME. OR AS AMENDED; HEY FELLOW MISSISSIPIANS - I VOTED FOR KERRY, FUCK YOU

[NoSheep]

9. There are many of us in red states that vote blue. A matter of time before

we rule. PROUD NC Democrat..Many of us here-radical as hell!:kick:

[bigtree]

15. preciate ya

[minerva50]

12. I've bought my retirement home in NC.

I hope to join you there in about 5 yrs and help to turnit blue!

[jus_the_facts]

13. This RED state voted BLUE in 1992............

.....and have held TWO DINO seats in the Senate for awhile too.....it's not about geography...it's ignorance and there's plenty o'that in your BLUE states too....plenty o'blame to go 'round all over the map.... :eyes:

[bigtree]

19. man, don't I know it. I can be ignorant as hell. lot of wisdom in the reds

lots of good folk out there. I love you all.

I'm more inclined to use party definitions than this blue-red canard that we have been debating. A few thousand votes the other way in one state and the republicans would be asking where they went wrong with the blues. Kinda of maddening.

[jus_the_facts]

24. the map posted below tells it like it IS..........

....there's plenty o'red in some o'those blue states indeed! :hi:

[havocmom]

16. Red & Blue? Sounds a lot like the Black & White way neocons see

and talk about things. Well, just as there are shades of gray, there are shades between Red & Blue. Those of us DEMS in "Red" states do not deserve such treatment from FELLOW LIBERALS.

My "RED" state elected a Dem governor and passed a medical marijuana bill, along with the damned gay marriage ban.

Don't recall seeing or hearing one single Kerry add on local stations & press. Lots of good people worked there asses off for the campaign though. Lots of LTTE in the papers.

Here is a thread with much better maps
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2650769#2650813

Gee, just treat us like idiots and failures and see how helpful we are next time. With friends like that, we don't need any enemies. And if the Dems get tagged with the slander of 'elitists' know that attitudes like you just showed are part of the reason. You don't do us or the party much good by directing your anger at people on the same team.

Yeah, why should you care what AMERICANS think? Jeeze what an attitude.
Let me know if you ever run for office.

[HeeBGBz]

18. Blue vote in a red state

Hey I tried. I can't help it if assholes came in and stole my land.

[bigtree]

23. my thoughts and prayers are with ya

my votes and appeals too!

[bigtree]

22. Look

I'm not much of a basher. I think you know what I'm really talking about here. This red/blue line is a canard. There are important contributions to our country and to our democracy that have come from all areas of the country, and from our detached states and provinces. The divide that I see is sharpest between the agendas of our parties, not so much between individual Americans. We've been cast against each other by a short-sighted campaign of fear and distraction. We are being sold down the river by the post election campaign of the same.

Point? The policies and agendas of the Democratic party have been in the best interest of the nation, no matter in what region. The policies of the republican party have been in the best interest of a short-sighted minority of affluent Americans who would divide our nation in the interest of greed and conquest.

Sorry if I offended. This is an argument that certainly needs refining, but also needs unraveling.

[havocmom]

25. Apology accepted. Yes it was sorta offensive

Yes, I agree with you about the policies of the two parties. I can't fathom why people fall for the lies, smoke and mirrors either and I see it all the time, and not just in politics and not just among the GOP.

I have been ranting that the real enemy of the American people is the American Corporation for almost two and a half decades. I can't begin to express my frustration that few others ever saw the potential problems coming at us. Too many DEMS just won't address the issue either. Too easy to just sell out for the short term gain.

Well, I have lived long enough and lost enough along the way to know the only thing they cannot take from you is your integrity and sense of self. All else is illusion AND fleeting. I have a feeling many of the talking heads on TV are about to find that out. Why the hell will the puppet masters need 54 channels saying the same ol party line? The media whores are gonna find they sold their souls for nothing.

Sorry about the rant, but I worked very very hard and feel like my candidates and too many from my own party just write me and my state off. I am really tired of being a voice in the wilderness. Glad I won't live too much longer. Don't see a way outta the mess, especially when we insist on blaming each other.

peace

[bigtree]

27. peace indeed

see what they've done to us? damn. a few more votes and we could be talking issues, not wading through the bushshit.

[havocmom]

29. OT but good for a wry smile

I counted votes in my county. One of a very small number of DEMs in the county, I sorta enjoy a strange perspective.

Having returned to MT after many years elsewhere, I was really appalled at the condition of this state now. I hear neighbors complaining about how bad things are. I studied the shit Racicot pulled before he blew town and took those jobs with ENRON, the RNC and bush*/Cheney 04.

Sitting there in a room with 4 neighbors, making sure each paper ballot got recorded correctly, I was almost choking to death on irony. Every now and then one of the election judges would come in with news updates. They were crestfallen that the GOP candidate for governor was getting beaten. They acted like it was the end of the world.

I sat there, thinking: for the past 5 years, I have heard nothing but grumbling from you all about how fast the state is going down the crapper. For the past 16 years, there has been a GOP majority in the state legislature and GOP governors. Now why the fuck can't they see the connection?

Somehow we are just not getting through. I know some just are incapable of making the logical connections, but damn...

Also, this week, I had to get really nasty with my big brother, the guy who first whetted my appetite for the study of US history and the guy who instilled in me a strong sense of civic pride AND sense of duty to community/country. He finally sent me one RW, bigoted email too many. I have tried to gently dissuade him from including me on his Ditto-Head type email list, but he just can't grasp that I don't like the crap. He had heart surgery last year. Friday is his birthday and we are not youngsters anymore. May never hear from him again and that really hurts, but that is the risk I decided to take in order to hold to my principles.

The worst thing about civil war is that there is nothing civil about it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. most of the country is purple.......map

[jus_the_facts]

21. I fall into that La. Delta Blue....

....right in there near the Mississippi border...roughly 70 miles west...eventhough my immediate area is red...the people who enlightened me to the blue side are from that Delta Blue neck o'the woods near here! :D

[Dancing_Dave]

28. You're really missing something, dude.

Quite a few of us in the red states did vote blue this time.

I think the cross-over could have been higher in some Libertarian-leaning Western red states if Kerry had made a real attempt to understand and reach out to the end of the Rebublican rank and file who are getting pretty sick of the corrupt anti-constitutional neo-con clique and their disasterous foreign adventures. Of course, Kerry had a bit of a handicap with these people from the get-go as a fellow Yale Skull and Bones club member with Dubya...but this probably wouldn't have been a serious problem had he made a realistic attempt to understand and reach out to the sort of Republicans who really are possible cross-overs now, and not waste his time on those who certainly are not (i.e., the shortsighted militarist "faith" themes at the Democratic National Convention, which could so easily be defeated with books of slander that were believed by those who wanted to believe them).

On the other hand, I wonder if we actually did better in some Western states than we know because fraud occured. If all the fraud and disenfranchizement which occured could be exposed, we might know that in the end, we actually DID win Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. How different those damn electoral vote maps would have looked then!

[bigtree]

30. I've yet to find any value in appealing to rank and file republicans

They have chosen to follow the fascist. Good on 'em. I do get your drift that we should be more unapologetically liberal in our appeal so that we can turn on more like minded voters who are inclined to our party and our ideals. More of our registered turn out, we win, leaving the opposition to wonder where they went wrong.

You're right about the fraud . . .and the intimidation of minority and Democratic voters, the mismanagement of our votes and voting areas . . .and how that would magically change the debate.

What a canard!

You voted blue. That is really the point isn't it? You based your vote on a positive agenda of change, and republicans based theirs on love of Bush and fear of everyone else. I'd recommend that our party keep with our message of hope and change rather than adopt any of the republican rhetoric of fear and division in our effort to win their votes.