blue states, red states

[clauclauclaudia]

Yes, it's very frustrating as a "blue" voter (okay, I hate these terms, but they've become universal shorthand) to see the geographical map, on which red is super-abundant even in election years that are not this one. I like to double-check with maps like http://www.electoral-vote.com/carto/nov04c.html , which are proportional by population rather than by area.

I also like the map that postvixen put up, and her reasons for posting it. By and large, the "red states" aren't all that red and the "blue states" aren't all that blue, you know. Here's her post, and thank you to MSNBC.com and BoingBoing for the map.

I decided to combine the two and look at a purple, population-proportionate map. And it's behind the cut.

Note that I had to improvise DC, as it wasn't painted in the MSNBC original. But it went 90% Kerry, so that's about right.



Now I want to see the same thing by county. Anyone?

[No image? Try http://www.offhand.org/claudia/images/purple-proportional-map.jpg ]

[Edited 1/28/2012: for posterity, more and better maps at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2004/ and elsewhere on that site ]

Comments

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

a "blue" voter (okay, I hate these terms, but they've become universal shorthand)

I encourage you to, if you hate the shorthand, to refuse to use it. We don't have to adopt commonly-used terms to be understood, especially if the metaphors are either ridiculous or frame (http://www.changethis.com/5.GeorgeLakoff) a discussion in emotion terms we disagree with or find invalid.

[clauclauclaudia]

PDF download only? That's a lot of work for what is presumably text that could perfectly well be presented as html. (A pet peeve of mine.)

It's the terms red state and blue state that make the purple map powerful. I don't use them normally. I agree, how we frame discussion is important.

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

Agreed on pet peeve, although the structure of the essay suggests why they want it presented in a certain way. But not as accessible as it could... should? be.

Good point about red and blue making purple map powerful.