Remapping America

Jesse Walker | November 4, 2004

There's a lot of post-election maps floating around right now. The most entertaining ones are here and here.

Comments

|11.4.04 @ 9:02PM|#

I'm still partial to the one on the November 2 entry at http://www.joncouture.com/

WHEATY/"Kinda dopey"/BRAINS... although the "brains" part gives the blue states sort of a zombie connotation.

|11.4.04 @ 9:17PM|#

Zombie connotation? Well, they were voting for John Kerry.

Jeff|11.4.04 @ 9:36PM|#

Because I like fictional maps, here's the DC Comics Atlas, the map of Krypton, the map of Mongo, and the world of Kamandi, Last Boy on Earth.

George|11.4.04 @ 9:59PM|#

I like the second one best. At least we get Hawaii. Alaska we can give back to the Russians for all I care.

|11.4.04 @ 10:09PM|#

...the end of the secular state.

|11.4.04 @ 11:12PM|#

Have they really not called Iowa, NM, and Wisconsin yet?

joe, map geek

|11.4.04 @ 11:19PM|#

This map has the twin virtue of infuriating idiots, and conveying important information.

http://www.online.masu.nodak.edu/divisions/hssdiv/meartz/online/intro_ninenations.htm

Jesse Walker|11.5.04 @ 12:43AM|#

That Nine Nations book is a forgotten classic.

|11.5.04 @ 1:06AM|#

Joe, that map really pisses me off!

|11.5.04 @ 2:33AM|#

http://www.ishkur.com/editorials/kerrywins01.jpg

here is another one

cheers

|11.5.04 @ 4:32AM|#

another one though dubious

http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm

Abiola Lapite|11.5.04 @ 7:47AM|#

http://www.ishkur.com/editorials/kerrywins01.jpg

It certainly doesn't speak to the knowledgeability of whoever colored in that map that Nigeria (where Bush beat out Kerry in the approval stakes) is colored blue, does it? Isn't it strange that the countries that approve of Bush also tend to have an up-close and personal problem dealing with Islamic extremists? Why would that be, I wonder ...

It's always amusing to see ignorant lefties flaunt their faux-internationalism.

|11.5.04 @ 8:59AM|#

Why have the parties switched constituencies?

http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/000000f1.htm

I blame the South and the lust for power. They're playing Macedonia to our Athens. There's very little of what one would call civilization south of the Schuylkill River. It's all "bar, bar, bar".

|11.5.04 @ 10:23AM|#

There'd need to be a powerfully divisive issue within the Dems for someone to try to start an alternative.

Gay marriage? I could see the Dems splitting into conservative and liberal camps on social issues.

Jesse Walker|11.5.04 @ 10:30AM|#

Fyodor: When I lived in North Carolina in the '80s -- and probably still today -- there were mountain counties that still voted Republican because they had opposed the Civil War. They didn't want to secede, so they cast their ballots for Jesse Helms.

|11.5.04 @ 10:37AM|#

Don't count on too much support for same-sex marriage among Democrats. (Maybe - if a miracle happens - civil union, but not marriage. Not in my lifetime.) Remember "don't ask don't tell".

Don't count on real acceptance as human beings with equal rights, either. In fact, I fully expect LAWRENCE V. TEXAS to be revisited by Bush's new court. Right after Roe v. Wade.

|11.5.04 @ 11:01AM|#

Looking at the maps, it's pretty obvious that the vote correlates with population density, greater density voting for Kerry and lesser density voting for Bush.

I suppose that means the constituencies that support democrats tend to live in cities. The democrats need to ask how they can broaden their appeal to less densely populated areas within the states.

|11.5.04 @ 12:04PM|#

Mr. Obvious,
You've shown that people who voted for Kerry are more dense than those who voted for Bush.

|11.5.04 @ 12:07PM|#

The linked maps mislead by showing Canada as politically uniform. Check out:
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/exilemap.jpg

for a map that shows Liberal and Conservative areas of Canada, as a guide for prospective immigrants.

|11.5.04 @ 12:10PM|#

fyodor, the creation of the Republicans mirrored the rise of industrialism and the consequent creation of the urban middle and upper classes. The impacts of this massive socio-economic shift on "traditional family values" (Daddy, and the people he got to boss around, not having to put up with furrners whose food smells funny) created quite a backlash among those tied to the old order, which created the odd working class/tradtionalist coaltion that defined the Democrats back then. So in a sense, the Democrats represented the old older, and the Republicans were progressive. The Democrats were the Jeffersonian, yeoman farmer, stay where God put you party, while the Republicans were the party of going into the big city to make your fortune.

As late as the 1950s and 60s, the economic and social elite (the industrial elite) in country was still concentrated in the northeast and upper midwest, which goes a long way to explaining why Republicans won seats in Massachusetts during the 20th century.

There's a lot of talk about Kennedy and McGovern driving southern Dems into the GOP in the 60s and 70s, with their crazy talk about black people and women being equal to Daddy. Much less remarked on is Goldwater and Nixon driving northeast Republicans into the Democratic Party, with their opposition to the progressive current on which the Republican Party was founded.

|11.5.04 @ 12:14PM|#

rod, neat map. Could you explain a couple things?

What are the red areas in eastern Canada? The section around the Great Lakes would be their manufacturing heartland, wouldn't it? I'd expect an area like that to be like Michigan. And why are some of the Maritimes red, and some blue?

|11.5.04 @ 12:27PM|#

joe,

That's quite the set of random words you've put together. Is it supposed to mean something?

|11.5.04 @ 12:29PM|#

I get it now. If you don't like the smell of midwestern food, why not come out and say it? Why so wordy?

|11.5.04 @ 12:31PM|#

Interesting that most of the urban areas of Ca went with Kerry and everyone else voted for Bush. Maybe it's time to revive that move to split the state into three states.

1. So Cal Coastal LA & St Babs

2. Bay Area + Eco-Facsist Marin & No Coast

3. San Diego Orange County and the crescent moon shape taking in everybody else from southern deserts to the norther foothills and mountains.

Smaller is better

|11.5.04 @ 12:34PM|#

Wait a second, an engineer who has trouble following cultural developments? That can't be!

|11.5.04 @ 12:47PM|#

Considering the recent cultural revelation and your constant assurances of a win for Kerry, that comment strikes me as very weak.

|11.5.04 @ 12:53PM|#

The third map:

http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg

is really the most telling. While there are states like Massachusettes and Utah, there are people of the left and right pretty well mixed in everywhere, even if the proportion changes. As long as no one is spouting the particular propaganda they've bought into, they get along resonably well, by and large.

|11.5.04 @ 1:08PM|#

Mmm-hmm. People throughout Missouri just LOVE residents of St. Louis. People in Orange County can't say enough nice things about people from Marin County. Tabacco Road Virginians sure do love G-16s living in Arlington County.

BTW, I predicted a close race right up to the end.

|11.5.04 @ 1:50PM|#

"While there are states like Massachusettes and Utah"

Wow, Utah went more strongly for Bush than Idaho did. That's amazing. Usually Idaho has the largest margin for the Republican candidate.

|11.5.04 @ 11:18PM|#

I should have given the link to the commentary that comes with the map of North America for prospective political refugees to Canada. Kevin Steel of the Western Standard (a rightish western Canadian advocacy magazine) created the map. He describes it for those who are interested or amused by the idea:

http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2004/11/a_canadian_guid.html

|11.6.04 @ 12:24AM|#

Check out: http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/purple_america_2004.gif

What I love about this even more detailed purple map is the line of blue down the Mississippi River Valley, then running east across the Bible Belt. Who are these remaining Southern Dems?

|11.6.04 @ 6:34PM|#

The map I still remember best (wish I could find a copy) was from a Chuck Asay cartoon back around the last time Quebec was making secessionist noises. The map divided North America thusly:

Eastern third of Canada and northeastern quarter of US: "Federal Union of America"

Western two-thirds of Canada, remainder of US (and, IIRC, northern third of Mexico - I don't get that bit): "United (But Free) States of America"

California: "People's Republic of California"

Oddly enough, that's actually quite close to the "Western Standard" map Rod points out.

|11.6.04 @ 6:40PM|#

Oh, and the "Blue State Secession" map reminds me: someone mentioned that idea on LGF, and the response was, "Nah, that's not going to fly - we'd insist on keeping some Pacific naval bases."