Not simply Red and Blue
In these seemingly polarised times the pictures below [Via Kottke] show that it is not acceptable, fair nor accurate to write off "America" as right wing, gun toting, abortion hating, gay bashing, war mongering, self centred, fundamentalist loonies. There are (at least) four good reasons why;
- 59,337,159 voted for Bush, 55,796,152 voted for Kerry, 1,059,273 voted for others.
- Many votes for Bush were for single issues and longstanding ones at that; guns, gays, taxes etc.
- Kerry was a mediocre candidate and the Democrats campaign was by many accounts equally mediocre.
- September 11th affected many in the US more than we can imagine from afar.
To those who encounter 'Americans' I ask you to remember that individuals are not representative of a whole country, a party, a candidate or an idea. Every American I know is good and decent and intelligent and 'liberal' and if they are not then they generally have a good reason why not which I am not presumptious enough to think I can label as wrong. Argue about issues if you will but don't think that by accident of birth they necessarily endorse the neo-con agenda or the system which elected it. And remember that just because you feel the need to vent, the overseas American you encounter has probably already had the discussion oh at least once or twice already today...
The map on the left shows counties won; Red for Republicans, Blue for Kerry.
On the right, the map shows a blend of Red & Blue according to share of vote. It only takes a little swing to be more bluey purple than reddy purple.
Posted by Paul in USA Politics at November 5, 2004 12:44 AM
