Powerful points all, and numerically undeniable. The 22% may want to tell the rest of us how to conduct our lives, but the 78% can tell then where to put their moral values.
Rich then makes note of which group the speakers at the RNC belong to:
- Sam Brownback, the Kansas senator who champions the religious right, was locked away in an off-camera rally across town from Madison Square Garden. Prime time was bestowed upon the three biggest stars in post-Bush Republican politics: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All are supporters of gay rights and opponents of the same-sex marriage constitutional amendment. Only Mr. McCain calls himself pro-life, and he's never made abortion a cause.
And that's the Republican future.
There will always be cylces of action and reaction to speific issues (which may be the case right now regarding gay marriage, a reaction by many that "things are moving too quickly"), but there is zero question that the greater arrow of American history moves in the direction of greater tolerance and personal liberty.
The geographical assumptions require more looking into as well. First, here is the red (Bush) and blue (Kerry) map reflecting the winners by state for the 2004 election (all maps courtesy Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman at the University of Michigan).
Rather stark in the regional solidarity, which has led many to declare "two Americas." But Gastner, Shalizi, and Newman give that view a twist by weighing for population, creating a "cartogram":
Assuming for a moment there ARE two Americas, they start to look a bit more equal from the population perspective.
Here is the vote by county, a much less monolithic view of the vote (USA Today version here):
And here is the county cartogram:
Then, perhaps most revealing of all, the trio use red, blue and their union, purple, to reflect actual vote percentages rather than winner-take-all:
The cartogram:
Suddenly it becomes graphically clear that there is relatively little true "red" America: there's an awful lot of purple and blue out there, and that's where the people tend to be. Back to my opening paragraph, I am personally quite purple and I am not alone.
Yet another way to look at this data was very cleverly devised by Robert David Sullivan, who cut up the nation into 10 political regions, each representing about 1/10 the electorate (around 10.5 million voters).
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Hal Pawluk
A vote for Bush means exactly what Bush says it means.
No amount of whining is going to change that.
Because his god tells him that's what a leader does.
2 - Eric Olsen
actually, a vote means what the voter says it means - that's why we have such things as polling. Voting is basically binary - the decisions that lead to it rarely are
3 - boomcrashbaby
Eric, I understand that a vote for Bush this election doesn't necessarily mean that the voter wants a return to medieval times, my fear though is that those who speak loudest on tv as well as paleo-cons here like Reporterette BELIEVE that it does. And Bush is spooning them late at night when Laura is asleep.
When I talk about all the discrimination and oppression I face, it's there, it's real and I do face it, but the majority of people are tolerant, even most Republicans out here. Of course all the Republicans we happen to know personally are lawyers so they know tolerance while at the same time being able to offend EVERYBODY.
It's the power this administration thinks it has, and the power the right wing thinks it's been given the go-ahead with, that scares me. I hope and I pray you are right, and I want nothing more than you to be able to say 'I told you so'.
on another note, this election has caused most people to quit talking about Iraq. Here's a bunch of pictures that you won't find in the mainstream media.
http://fallujapictures.blogspot.com/
4 - curt
boom -
just visited the fallujahpictures.blogspot...sort of a sobering view on the reality of the invasion and occupation, isn't it?
real citizens - men, women and children (sights you won't see on a florida college campus); and real american soldiers - those brave enough to actually enlist (and able to take orders)...
...killed or maimed.
5 - Jim Carruthers
I wonder, next year, how willing Eric will want to wear a "I voted for Bush" badge in public on the streets (hint, make sure to wear a cup). Not so much, I suspect when everything goes down the sewer.
6 - Natalie Davis
Yeah. Disappointed. Eric and Frank Rich's good points notwithstanding, there is a war brewing. Dubya insists he's going to spend his political capital and that means ugliness is on the way, whatever well-meaning people who voted for the terrorist-and-thief think.
7 - Eric Olsen
Boom, I hope I am right too, but that doesn't mean the election was not at least partially a (temporary I assume) rearguard action against tolerance and equality - I don't blame you for being concerned.
Re the pics: war sucks, does anyone not believe that war sucks, is in fact, hell? But if you're going to do it, you do it and you do it to win. This is reality.
8 - Eric Olsen
Nat, I appreciate being credited as well-meaning. I believe there are those who are trying to foment cultural conflict, but they will not succeed in anything but the shortest term. Just look at the demographics, the real political realities of red, blue and purple: the larger arrow will continue to move in a positive direction.
9 - Avedon
In my case, I just thought it best to return Bush to office to (attempt to) finish what he began regarding the war on terror.
The question I'm struggling with right now is just what it is he started. Is what's going on in Iraq a feature or a bug?
10 - Eric Olsen
I see Iraq as part of the war on terror, that mission must be completed while we continue to work with Afghanistan and continue to vigorously pursue al Qaeda throughout the globe. We have to deal with nukes in North Korea and prevent them in Iran - it's a perilous and difficult time.
11 - Natalie Davis
I hope you are correct about the larger arrow, Eric, but I am not as positive as you. In fact, I have lost whatever faith I had in 51 percent of those who voted. Bad stuff is coming -- or worse stuff, rather, considering things were intolerably bad as they were. Your guy, bought and paid for by the Religious Wrong, has political capital to spend, and he means to spend it. Good people with means ought to flee and flee fast.
12 - Natalie Davis
Oh -- and think about those who can't flee, those who are beaten down by the policies Bush votes, intentionally or not, supported, those who live every day without legal equality or economic justice, those who suffer because of the Bush gang. If you think a war isn't brewing, please think again. Some of us have had it. Things are going to get ugly.
13 - boomcrashbaby
shhhh.
14 - Hal Pawluk
There is hardly any need to pursue terrorists in Iraq - virtually all of them are home-grown and there for the taking.
The problem is all the other terrorists around the world, who rather than going to Iraq have spread far and wide, gaining new converts as they went because of hte carnage created in Iraq.
The problem has gone far beyond Al Qaeda (and the very few leaders captured).
15 - alethinos59
Eric... I like what you're trying to say here... We all know that the Republicans AND the Democrats are both bedding big business. Historical records show that Big Business doesn't really care if there is a Dem or Rep in the White House. Oh certain people scream about TAXES but Federal taxes are amazingly low and HAVE BEEN for nearly 30 years.
But the problem is that Bush and his ilk are riding a TIGER that they may very well not be able to dismount... Insanity once unleashed is damn hard to lure back. We have plenty of examples of this in the last 100 years...
16 - RJ
"Good people with means ought to flee and flee fast."
Go!
17 - RJ
"If you think a war isn't brewing, please think again. Some of us have had it. Things are going to get ugly."
Are you threatening violence?
I thought that was against your "religion"...
18 - andy marsh
RJ - don't worry, the left doesn't have any guns anyway!
19 - Mark Saleski
geezuz! don't you guys ever get tired of playing with these lame stereotypes?
i can play too:
no, the left doesn't have guns, we've got books.
duh.
20 - andy marsh
gonna throw 'em?
21 - Eric Olsen
Anyway, my main point is the "sides" don't exist nearly to the extent perceived, that there are a very large number of people - probably the plurality - who don't identify with the hardline agenda of either the right or the left, who pick and choose, who weigh priorities from election to election, and who may well go the other way next time around if they feel the pendulum is too far from the center.
22 - Mac Diva
. . .and that's why the most Right Wing regime since the Reagan years was just elected. Not. The people who voted for Bush voted for all the bad things that are going to happen under his very hard line regime. They can wiggle as much they want, but we should not let them off the hook.
23 - Eric Olsen
whatever you say Boss
24 - Hal Pawluk
If you had ever seen one, you'd know it would hurt to get hit by a book.
25 - andy marsh
HA HA!!! That was humor...I get it!!! I've seen 'em...we burn them all the time!!!