3D Election Results Map by County 463
FlopEJoe writes "There are many web-based electoral maps available on the regular news sites (Electorial-vote, CNN) but this image 3d county results seemed more profound to me. Wish I had more to say about it but I don't want to cloud the discussion. I think it speaks for itself and the spin-masters should enjoy it."
You forgot Hawaii! (Score:2, Insightful)
Correlations (Score:3, Interesting)
What software was used?
Re:Correlations (Score:4, Informative)
African American Vote (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd say they have more to do with African American population, since 88% of them voted democratic [cnn.com]which is by far the largest margin in any racial grouping. 88% of African Americans also live in metropolitan areas [wikipedia.org] according to the 2000 census.
The Republican party must find a way to reach out to these people or at least somehow counter the perception that Republicans are racists.
Re:African American Vote (Score:4, Insightful)
That we're percieved as such, however, says a *lot* about the prejudices held by those who would call us racist. To which I can only respond with, "Dumbasses, heal thyself."
Re:African American Vote (Score:3, Insightful)
That we're percieved as such, however, says a *lot* about the prejudices held by those who would call us racist.
If I see you, as a conservative individual, and say "oh, you must be a racist!", that is prejudice.
It is not prejudiced to note overall trends. You are correct in noting that most self-described conservatives are not racists. In fact, on the contrary- as a group conservatives in America seem to
Re:African American Vote (Score:4, Insightful)
So it's not prejudiced to say black men are more likely to be violent, since more black men are in jail for violent offenses than white men? If you find my comment prejudicial (which, really, you should, because it is), then you should realize yours is, too.
Re:African American Vote (Score:3, Insightful)
I love it. Democrats get all squirrelly because Strom Thurmond used to be in favor of segregation, though he later changed his stance. But bring up Robert Byrd and his recruiting efforts for the Klan and they brush it off as a "youthful indiscretion", never mind that Byrd never once recanted those efforts. Also keep in mind that as recently as 2001 Byrd prattled on about "n*****s" on Fox News. This is just one e
Re:African American Vote (Score:3, Informative)
Re:African American Vote (Score:3, Interesting)
That is an important point. Bush's win was decided on 'moral issues' which the conservatives have claimed as thier mantra.
I cannot understand how these 'moral' people can overlook lying to the American people, Congress and the World, invading another country without provocation, killing tens of thousands of civilians, torturing prisoners, even using sexual humi
Re:African American Vote (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Abortion is still legal because of the supreme court. And GW wants real bad to change it. Your little comment about "primary birth control" shows that you too have been buying the RR's propaganda. Well done. There is no prohibition of moments of silence, only group prayer by state run institutions.
3. The RR inflates the anti-gay numbers dramatically. I think you understimate how many religious people are out there. If any significant proportion of non-religious people agreed with them on the issue, the numbers would be and are large.
4. They havent' succeeded at too much in the way of moral leglislation, except pushing abstinence only teaching programs and funding religious groups under the "faith based initiatives". However GW wants a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BASED ON MORAL ISSUES, you noticed that? Stem cells, ring a bell? You don't think these things point to a mindset of leglislating morality? Head, meet sand.
5. Intolerance is intolerance. Gays, blacks, what have you, it's all rooted in the same shit. Republicans orchestrated, among other things, tougher sentances on crack cocaine than powder cocaine (guess which demographics use which) even though crack is a LESS POTENT variety of pure cocaine. Just the first example that pops to mind.
6. The RNC has some moderates in their fold. I would vote for McCain in a heartbeat. However their policy under GW is heavily swinging to the RR's agendas, and if you can't see that by now, you are actively avoiding the obvious.
7. I did not say all republicans were racist. I said their agendas are being influenced by people who make them look racist. I guess you don't see it. It's there. I also did not say all conservatives were religious, but it is an undeniable... well, if you have any sanity or reason whatsoever... to note that the party platform has been heavily influenced to appeal to the RR. The constituency does not make the entire party, but it certainly does influence the party platform, and that is almost as bad in this case.
Re:African American Vote (Score:4, Insightful)
GW is anti Roe V Wade. Your own party believes this. here, check it out: http://bush2004.meetup.com/345/ maybe you weren't at that meeting. Bitching about abortion as "primary birth control" is a straw man. Some women exist who do this I'm sure. Ask any woman who admits to having had an abortion, however, and you would know it is not a decision that is pleasant or taken lightly. It is a gut wrenching issue for women. My own mother, in fact, had one, and attempted to give me up for adoption. Luckily for my mom and I, she had a mother willing to help when she couldn't go through with it. But she couldn't have raised two children, we struggled as it was, and rather than go on welfare my mom made the choice she needed to in order to be able to actually care for the child she had. I have never in my life met a woman who had the attitude that they didn't need birth control because they could just go off and get an abortion. I have met several, however, that are not sucking off of welfare or living lives of poverty because safe abortion was an option.
"Ethical" vs "Moral" is code for the same crap; promoting the fundamentalist christian agenda as somehow morally or ethically superior to making pragmatic decisions regarding the health of our nation. Drop the semantics.
Relying on abstinence only teaching is a joke; it doesn't work, and it prevents our teens from being educated as to how they can actually protect themselves when they have sex. And they will. They have been since the dawn of time, and they will continue to do so, whether or not our society is thinking that childhood lasts longer and longer or not, puberty begs to differ with our laws.
You keep trying to say that I am calling all republicans religious. I am not. The republican platform is heavily influenced by the christians. Please keep it straight. Yes, there are atheists that agree with christian ideals, but six in ten americans identify themselves as religious, and you're trying to tell me this isn't a very significant fraction of the RNC? please.
re racism; no, the RNC did not force blacks to use crack. They noticed that blacks were using crack, and upped the sentences on it, when in fact it is less potent then the cocaine GW was using at Yale. Please explain to me why this made sense, since obviously there wasn't a racial component involved. Your computer crime analogy is another straw man; if all blacks used macs and whites used PC's, and computer crime on macs were punished more severely, then the analogy would hold true. If cocaine had been upped like crack, it would have at least been fair.
The "american people" you refer to is a large select subset. The RNC base. The RNC has chosen to be the RR's mouthpiece in government. Hey, it helped elect them, and those people deserve representation even if I personally have no respect whatsoever for their politics, but do not pretend the RNC has not taken this role. You can pretty it up all you like, but you are rubbing shoulders with the Mormons and the Holy Rollers in your RNC voting block.
Telling people their unions don't matter as much as someone else's is bigoted. It really is that simple. You may think the bigotry is justified,
Re: morals (Score:3, Insightful)
I think what you meant to say (sans caps) is "GW wants a constitutional amendment based on religious interpretation." That to me seems like a more apt description of the position in question. There are moral arguments on both sides of the stem cell and gay marri
Re:African American Vote (Score:3, Interesting)
Why should we reach out to anyone? Last time I checked, we won the election hands down. Considering how many people voted for Kerry and also voted for constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, I'd say Republicans should become more conservative, not less. (I bring up gay marriage as one example, especially since it's likely that blacks who voted for Kerry voted ag
I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:3, Interesting)
In France there was a very racist party (Front National) and the people who would vote for them were on average less educated than people who voted for other parties. The FN leader, Le Pen, said it had to do with the propaganda we have in schools against the FN. Which of course wasn't believed by anyone but the people without an education.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, CNN has the exit polls [cnn.com] - just look for "EDUCATION" and you should find it.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:4, Insightful)
Interesting reply (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just my opinion, mind you.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:5, Informative)
So, truth be told, the more someone is educated, the more likely they are to be liberal. This is not to say that Republicans are stupid (in fact, I think they are quite intelligent).
Anyways, here is the breakdown you were asking for.
Election Breakdown by IQ [geekgossip.net] Any doubts at the validity, the author provides his sources, so feel free to double check.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:5, Interesting)
If learning about evolution and not creationism in science class is liberal - than I guess we are for now.
To me, I think the republican party stands for religion more than anything else. They have lost the principles of small government and fiscal responsibility. They have also lost the ideals of isolationism in world affairs. The one defining characteristic of the current republican party is Christian "values." Of course affordable healthcare so people don't die in the street is also a value. Giving people a wage they can live off of is also a value. But those don't count I guess.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:4, Insightful)
Wages are earned. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wages are earned, not given. They are earned by doing work for the value of the wage. Things really get messed up if someone outside sets the value of the wage without regard to the value of the work. Forcing companies to overpay workers at some government-set wage that has nothing to do with the work also demeans real work and turns the whole affair into a welfare program: a forced handout.
Every time the government arbitrarily sets the mininum wage to be higher, thousands of people end up losing their jobs, as it forces companies to try to get by without low-end jobs. When I point it out to people who favor the "minimum wage", the typical response is that these jobs are worthless: a poor person is better off getting nothing, as compared to getting $17,000 a year.
As long as you are arbitrarily setting wages without regard to value, why not set the minimum wage to $1,000 an hour? It will make everyone a millionaire. Why stop at a low value?
Re:Wages are earned. (Score:3, Informative)
First if money is deflated in value then people with money don't have to do anything at all. The more money they have the more money they get just by holding onto it. No reason to invest in anything because your money is just gaining value. This is bad because only rich people will hav
Re:Wages are earned. (Score:2)
econ class and I remember being amused that a minimum wage being bad is one of the
few things (non-partisan) economists agree on.
It speaks volumes about a candidate when he promises to raise the minimum wage
to win more votes when you know he knows (or at least his economic advisors
know) that it makes poor econimic policy.
In fact, I use the minimum wage position as a litmus test of sorts when
deciding who to vote for. If someone is wi
Re:Wages are earned. (Score:3, Insightful)
You can have a perfectly viable and impressive economy while shitting on everyone in it.
Re:Wages are earned. (Score:3, Insightful)
life must eventually suffer.
That depends on who's quality of life we are talking about...
If you are talking about the average standard of living, yes... But if you are talking about the standard of living of the average person, no...
If you remove all of the unions, and minimum wages and other protections of workers, the standard of living for those at the top will rise sufficiently as to more than account for the drop in standard of living of the workers, wh
You got it. (Score:2, Flamebait)
You've got it. The Michael Moore argument that small business is the cause of economic evil, and we must wipe it out in order to progress.
It's a hoax (Score:3, Informative)
That pages uses www.chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm [chrisevans3d.com] as a source. It'll redirect you to attenuation.net/files/iq.htm [attenuation.net]. From there, you can find www.sq.4mg.com/IQschools.htm [4mg.com] which has estimates for state IQ based on ACT/SAT tests. You'll notice that the IQs are much more evenly distributed. If you follow his link to http://www.sq.4mg.com/IQ-States.htm [4mg.com], you'll see links at the bottom to the unverified hoax IQ scores [4mg.com] used in your chart.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Satire gone bad [snopes.com]
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
The statistics from Election Breakdown by IQ [geekgossip.net] may be misleading since the standard deviations were not reported. Just another poorly interpreted poll. Sigh. :-/
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2, Interesting)
I believe that religion factors into this as well. People who are more religious all like Bush. People who are less or not religious at all support Kerry. I guess this could factor into intelligence as well, as it seems the smarter in general you are less likely yo
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:3, Insightful)
"People who agreed with me are smarter than people who don't." Perhaps we should rephrase this a bit: Since I am human, and have any sort of an ego (that, in itself, is not bad - it's quite healthy), I think that I am smart. Therefore, anyone who agrees with me must also be smart.
I'm still waiting for the first objective post in favour of Kerry in politics.slashdot.org. Of course, the same could be said for Bush, so anyone taking this as a jab should consider how meaningless of a jab it is.
Same could b
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
You didn't say it explicitly, but you continue to imply it. And you continue to insult those of us who do have 140+ IQs and still support Bush. (I'll repeat from an earlier comment: I still think IQ is just a useless number used to label people, but let's pretend for a minute that it means something.) It's a lot easier to have an intelligent conversation with people who agree with you than with those who disagree. The real test of maturity is having an intelligent conversation with those who disagree wi
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Yea its not like you said
I guess this could factor into intelligence as well, as it seems the smarter in general you are less likely you are to believe in God or other religious tokens/aspects.
Yea you have no issues with the gun toating inbread bible thumping morons so long as they leave you alone..
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:3, Informative)
BUSH KERRY NADER
No High School (4%) 49% 50% 0%
H.S. Graduate (22%) 52% 47% 0%
Some College (32%) 54% 46% 0%
College Graduate (26%) 52% 46% 1%
Postgrad Study (16%) 44% 55% 1%
BUSH KERRY NADER
No College Degree (58%) 53% 47% 0%
College Graduate (42%) 49% 49% 1%
Overall, things aren't terribly lopsided one way or the other. The one area Kerry has a lead, po
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Actually, Kerry also has a lead in the no high school crowd. This proves the old saw: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," where little in this case means high school degree up to bachelor's degree. :) Obviously, one could also look at the no high school degree as the people who are most likely to be in poverty and therefore most likely to be wanting a change. I think it would be interesting to combine statistics for wealth and education. I suspect that those who have less wealth and more education (
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
There is a slight (probably not statistically significant) trend up for Bush until the very last item. I find that not surprising because at that level of education, people are more likely to have radically different views than most. While we can argue who represents the mainstream more, I
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising really - can you imagine the pollsters hanging around outside with their clipboards asking everyone: "hello? Who did you vote for? What? Are you stupid?"
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:4, Insightful)
True, but the exit polls also show that Kerry won...
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Thier are some spreading around for 2004 but all they did was take one of the liberal hoax ones from 2000 and change the states around, and false number are still used.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll go out on a limb and say that Kerry got the more educated vote, but that it's correlative instead of causative.
Basically, city dwellers tend to be more liberal than rural residents, who are famously conservative. This probably has more to do with the facts of life in the respective locations than anything else. That is, densely populated environments tend to foster an atmosphere of mutual dependence (because if they didn't, the 10,000,000 people packed into a small area would probably melt down), whereas farmers pretty much have to be self-reliant. In harvest season, you'll help your neighbor if you can, but your first priority is getting your own work done first because that's what's going to feed your family for the next year.
I don't think that either of these ways of living is inherently better; each is well-suited for its own niche. So, I think it's perfectly rational for rural populations to be more conservative than city populations.
If you buy that so far, then consider where educated people tend to go after they graduate. You just got a PhD in particle physics. Are you likely to move to a Midwestern town of 15,000? No. You're going to go where there are jobs for people with your qualifications, and that pretty much exclusively means a largish city. And when you get there, you'll probably find your politics sliding to the left to match those of your colleagues and neighbors that were already there.
I don't think intelligence directly maps to political leanings at all. I've personally known plenty of smart (and dumb) people on either end of the spectrum (or corner of the graph if you're a 2d-map fan). I do think, though, that your intelligence has an effect on where you'll live, and you're place of residence has a large effect on your political beliefs.
So, I'll stick with my original statement that educated people tend to vote for Kerry.
PS. My wife and I are both educated (her: DPM, me: BS) conservatives. If you interpret my message to say that Kerry supporters are smarter, then you missed the entire point.
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
A lot of pre-election data was gathered on this subject. As usual the more educated someone is (in terms of degrees) the more likely they were to support progressive/democratic candidates, such as Kerry. Data in previous elections mirrors this trend, so no suprise there. Don't be too quick to equate education with intelligence, though. They are two very seperate things.
Also, along a different line, Bush supporters were vastly more likely to be grossly misinformed about key facts involving terroris
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
People with No High school were more likely to vote for Kerry, and those with Post Graduate Degrees were more likely to vote for Kerry.
People with a HS Diploma, Some College, or a College Degree were more likely to vote for Bush.
Also, along a different line, Bush supporters were vastly more likely to be grossly misinformed about key facts involving terrorism, the war in Iraq, and the positions of both candidates.
And where would you get this?
In numerous surveys/studies I saw data
I wou
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
College Graduates (26% of the vote) Voted for Bush 52% to 46%, Postgrads (16% of the vote) voted for Kerry 55% to 41%.
In France there was a very racist party (Front National) and the people who would vote for them were on average less educated than people who voted for other parties.
You shouldn't call a party racist because they are interested in preserving their langua
Re:I was modded down as troll for saying this (Score:2)
Isolation (Score:3, Funny)
It's kinda funny to see my county all alone and blue on the sea of red (Travis Co,TX).
prettier map (Score:5, Informative)
Captain Obvious to the rescue (Score:4, Insightful)
The picture you've linked to is displaying county-by-county presidential preference percentages, which is totally fascinating.
The picture in the story displays county-by-county presidential victors by population, which is also totally fascinating.
Can these guys collaborate or something? I kindof want to see the nighttime lights superimposed on the purple map.
Re:prettier map (Score:4, Insightful)
Why 3D? (Score:2)
Re:Why 3D? (Score:2)
Re:Why 3D? (Score:3, Informative)
Note that I do *not* think this is a good way to view the info. You'll see that I tinted the top of the bars. If I did this for all blue counties, everything would appear red. This is a very very misleading map any way you draw it. Hopefully, this is a bit less misleading than the original:
"Fixed" Map [cheshirehall.net]
--
Evan
Electoral College (Score:3, Funny)
Electoral College Democracy (Score:2, Insightful)
In the Electoral College, the vote of the majority (people living in cities) is diluted to give people living in the suburbs, and Southern Slave Owners, an increased vote. Since we no longer have slave owners, it's kind of moot to continue having the Electoral College. If you read the Federalist Papers, you'll discover that the founding fathers weren't real keen on giving Joe Schmoe a vote, and if you read History, you'll find that slave owners wanted their s
Re:Electoral College Democracy (Score:5, Informative)
And mayeb, just maybe if the founders put a democracy in place you might have a point. Were are a Federal Republic.
Since we no longer have slave owners, it's kind of moot to continue having the Electoral College.
Except that we are a Federal Republic
If you read the Federalist Papers, you'll discover that the founding fathers weren't real keen on giving Joe Schmoe a vote
Yes becuase of joe and 50 of his freinds decide to screw jane and 48 of her friends out of something, in a democracy they can. So instead they built a Represenative system with chekcs and balances.
The point of a Democracy is that the majority of the people get to determine things.
As Franklin said "Two Wolves and a Sheep voting on whats for Dinner"
If you do anything to dilute the power of the majority (Electoral College, Aparthied, for example), then you're not living in a Democracy.
Oh nevermind you do get it, we are not a democracy we are a Democratic Republic. Now here is one to wrap your head around True Democracy is like True Communism, it cant exist. True Democracy would entail every person voting on everything that would happen. Can you imagine election day, every day for things like peanut subsidies? Without a slave population (like that of ancient Athens) the citizens do not have the time to vote on every issue..
You can argue all you want about increasing the power of rural voters, but that still doesn't mean it's right -- or that it's a democracy.
It also does not mean its wrong, and yes we are not a democracy...
Senators weren't directly elected by the people until the 1920's. Things can, do, and should change.
Yup and if you want to trash the EC have fun because at least 35-40 States stand to lose power if you do. Electing senators did not affect the states (we are a federal republic) balance of power, traching the EC does.
Re:Electoral College Democracy (Score:3, Informative)
There were no suburbs when the electoral college was created, and when it was created one of the ideas behind it was to take away the voting power of slave owners The electoral college was simply a compromise between the states with a large population and the states with a small population to elect a president.
Since we no longer
Re:Electoral College (Score:2, Insightful)
You can accomplish what you're talking about in any number of ways. Why stick with a bad one?
For instance, you know when the Electoral College was set up, you were voting for people to go to the College. When you cast your vote a couple of days ago, you were not (traditionally) voting for
Urban regions surrounded (Score:2)
Re:Urban regions surrounded (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:There were no fixed colors until this year (Score:2)
Ummm... (Score:2)
Is the height of the stacks tied to population or numbers of voters or to the margin of victory in that county, percentage or absolute?
This isn't particularly self-explanatory. A key would be nice.
Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Insightful)
That is to say, a high population area may have 48% Republican votes and 49% Democratic votes but the entire tall bar is colored blue.
--
Evan
Re:Ummm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ummm... (Score:3, Interesting)
It would also help if they mixed the red and blue in the proportion of the votes.
Not all blue areas are large prosperous cities (Score:4, Informative)
Votes by IQ (Score:3, Insightful)
-Vic
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:2)
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:5, Insightful)
Democrats are more concerned with city issues. The city issues often come at the expense more rural areas. If I live in nowhere Texas and a Democrat blathers on about welfare and the environment, he isn't speak to me. Such a person probably has minimal expense and so even if he doesn't have a job has little need for welfare. The issue with the environment is a complete non-issue when you are surrounded by nothing but clean air. A Republican talking about cutting taxes on the other hand does appeal to such a person because it might very well be one of their biggest expenses.
You also need to realize that cities inflate their IQ with college students. College students have decidedly fewer issues they have to worry about and tend to be very liberal. As a college student doing the thing that 'feels right' is far more appealing then a tax break because chances are that college student doesn't pay a significant (or any) income tax.
I am not saying that the above explanations are the correct ones, just giving an example as to why I wouldn't take the analogy too far.
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:2)
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:2)
Snopes talks about it here [snopes.com]
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:2)
Re:Votes by IQ (Score:2)
Wow! I had no idea the average IQ was so low. Here I'd been under the impression that GWB was dumber than the average American.
That statement doesn't make sense. The average IQ can never be low or high. It is always 100. It is DEFINED as 100. The IQ scale is not an absolute one, but a comparitive one. If everyone in the world got smarter by some fixed amount, their IQ's would not change (even though their intelligence did), and the average IQ would still be 100.
Nothing like criticizing people for be
Misleading (don't overlook this) (Score:3, Insightful)
In other words, a county shows all red even if it is 51% Bush / 49% Kerry. Just so we remember that there is a lot of red in the blue counties, and vice-versa.
Doesn't look right to me (Score:2)
There should be a huge blue spike in New York City, it went 85% for Kerry and has a larger population than chigago which had a large spike.
Re:Doesn't look right to me (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't look right to me (Score:2)
You know it's sort of strange that those big spikes look like skyscrapers...
Another Fun Experiment (Score:2)
Notice anything?
Re:Another Fun Experiment (Score:2, Funny)
Damn Liberials!
Another Interesting Map (Score:3, Informative)
Purple Mountain Majesties [boingboing.net]
America isn't really "Red" or "Blue." It's Purple.
Well, aside from Utah, anyway
Re:Another Interesting Map (Score:2)
what's it based on (Score:2)
I saw another poster suggest population, but that doesn't make sense because so much is flat.
I submit that it is based upon the sway of the vote. The higher the plateau, the farther away from 50% split the vote was, and the color indicates the higher sway of votes. It also explains the higher blue plateaus in the coastal/liberal areas.
FWIW, I don't appear on that map; I voted for Badnarik [badnarik.org]
Meh (Score:2)
I also see Hawaii didn't make it onto the map, and from what little of Alaska I can see I suspect they didn't bother with borough lines there.
Crime (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It just shows what everyone has known... (Score:3, Insightful)
Believe it or not, there *are* some people in the country that *are* intelligent, that
There were a lot of people who voted for all the wrong reasons. But th
Moderation is not meant to suppress opinion. (Score:3, Insightful)
Moderators should be required to pass a multiple-choice test that shows they understand the moderation system. Moderation is not meant to suppress someone else's opinion, but it is being used that way.
A "Troll" is someone who intentionally posts misleading information. The Troller does not believe what he is saying.
"Flamebait" is a comment posted with an intent to start a pointless argument.
The parent comment is, "It just shows what everyone has known... that ignorant hick-country rednecks vote for
The vast red plains? Barsoom. (Score:2)
I've figured it out. The vast red plains reference brought it home: we are living in Barsoom. John Kerry did bear a striking resemblance to Tars Tarkas. I guess Jimmy Carter will do in a pinch as we don't have John Carter.
Re:outplayed by geographic concentrations (Score:3, Insightful)
The rural areas represent many independent views, while the urban areas represent a few views that are spread easily through highly concentrated populations and are grossly magnified by the skewed population sizes.
Re:What's so profound? (Score:3, Informative)
This 3D map is a much more accurate reflection of the voter reality.
Now, I don't want to sound like a sore loser. Bush won fair and square. He got more votes. He secured the Electoral
Re:What's so profound? (Score:3, Informative)
As things stand, I'll vote for the Democrats in every close election, like the
Re:What's so profound? (Score:3, Interesting)
And just because something was written into the founding documents doesn't make it right, or appicable to todays world. After all, the Constitution [archives.gov] had provisions for slavery in it. See Article 1
Re:But why do they vote that way? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fast foward to today, where most of the nation's industrial work has fled the higher taxes (and tigher environmental laws) of the cities to the rural areas. The cities are now home to many social programs, such as welfare, that are harder to manage in the urban areas (economy of scale, not as efficient if population is distributed).
Modern conservatives hold the belief of independence from the state, that they want to control their own destinies and not be told what to do by the government. Over time, many conservatives have left the establishments to start their own communities farther away from those that would oppress them (with things like high taxes, underrepresentation, etc)
Education levels would be roughly equal. It is a myth that liberals are higher educated, given that they are much more socially divided than conservatives are.. you have the rich highly-educated liberals along side the poor under-educated liberals who live off of social programs. Conservatives have a more equal average education level without this social divide.
Church percentages is again harder to estimate, though I would say slightly higher in the rural areas. Massachusetts has a very strong Christian Democrat estabishment, esp around Boston & the east (see Kennedys). Also, many of the urban minority democrats in the cities also happen to be strong Baptists, they are just more willing to put aside their religious convictions for (perceived) political gain.
Blue states subsidize the red ones (Score:5, Informative)
That's a nice thought and theory on why people vote that way, but if you look at how much is paid per capita in taxes vs. how much is received in federal expenditures, the people in the red states are predominantly on the receiving end of the taxes paid by the people in the blue states:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxingspending.html [taxfoundation.org]
I'd really like to see a map overlay, but it looks to me like they vote like vampires...because they certainly aren't opposed to welfare.
They also seem way too interested in controlling what happens inside other peoples' bedrooms and bodies.
Re:How to understand the election results. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why a lot of liberals get stamped with the elitist tag.
Land doesn't vote. (Score:5, Insightful)
So "geographically" is meaningless in this case.
Again, land does not vote. Only people vote.
So comparing the 2-dimensional areas is meaningless.
For the third time, land does not vote. So the population of NYC is out-voting the population of the rest of the state. In other words, "democracy".
Are you familiar with the term "gerrymandering"?
How about if we break it down further so that each person gets his/her "representative vote the way that" person voted? I can support that, but I cannot support a system that would be so open to gerrymandering abuses.
Re:Land doesn't vote. (Score:3)
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that most people in upstate NY also do not do these things...
Second, I'm beginning to get really tired of statements like
because this election and its aftermath are showing, very clearly, that people who live in Montana see
Re:New York State .vs. New York City (Score:3, Insightful)
Cities are the melting pot for our society. We must accomodate the needs of high-density populations at higher priority than of low-density populations.
When you live out in the middle of nowhere, you aren't as likely to encounter people of different faiths, different lifestyles, different levels of education, different beliefs. Yes, yes, there is a level of variety, bu