Divided Country

In the wake of the 2004 victory for Dubya and the Republican party, the Main Stream Media uses the term - we are still a divided country…

I think they don’t know what that word means, the word is mandate.

Truth be told, we are a divided country, as far as I know there has been no President that has been elected with 100% of the vote.  This country has been divided for its entire history, because we have always allowed the country to vote for its leaders, both locally, in states, and at the federal level.  No one (except the occassional unopposed office) has one 100% of the vote.

Looking at the by county map (and USA Today compare 2000/2004 maps) the country has gotten a deeper shade of red.  The blue islands, when all blocks have been colored in, will have gotten smaller.  Conservative values are winning, the base has learned this year that the rural votes have the power to overcome the big cities if they get out and vote. 

The backlash against the party that ignores the growing base of conservatives will only slowly lose any power they have left. 

To those in the red states, and those tasting victory.  Don’t get cocky.  Be true to your values, be true to the offices you hold, and never forget who you work for.

Updates below the fold, click:

Update: Michelle Malkin says:

Yes, the country is divided. Divided between gracious winners and mud-slinging, hypocritical whiners who have nothing else to do now but point to their emotional boo-boos and decry the dirtiness of politics.

Update: Jared at Thinklings writes in his post Days of Whine and Poses:

The Left has reaped the whirlwind it started.

He also thinks the next few years it will be entertaining to watch the lefties deconstruct more.  Me, not so much the last three have been pretty painful… I hope they are faster learners…

Update: Other blogs that I frequently read are using the same graphic:

Eric @ Fireant Gazzette:

Granted, since we’re a republic of states, those state lines really are meaningful; I’m not trying to minimize that fact or argue otherwise. This is just a different perspective than what we usually see.

Daniel @ Behind the Wall of Sleep:

Do you still see a fortress? I do not; far from it. Instead, I think this shows how integrated we are, Republicans and Democrats, all mixed-up together. You want to know what else? I bet if you went a little deeper, and looked at the voting district results, you would see even more mingling. And, if the data were available, at a house-by-house level, or a voter-by-voter level, you would have to admit that we live cheek-and-jowl, side-by-side, right next to one another.

It’s not a fortress, sir. It’s a nation.

To buttress Daniel’s point, goto CNN’s Election map.  This map intrigued me by its presentation of the county by county totals.  You have to click through to the states, and then you’ll see a gradient view of the strength’s of each candidates total.  A strong Bush county will be a dark red, and a strong Kerry county will be a dark blue.  You can also see an individual county by county ‘strength’ map which just shows the color gradient for one candidate.  I’d love to see the final version of this map at the country level using the gradients by county, instead of the red/blue map.

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Comments & References

• 

  Jared  on  11/03  at  06:01 PM

  
  

  Well, I said they “might” be entertaining the next four years. And that’s only because, with the House and Senate now majority Republican, the Dems are truly out of power. When the Dems are out of power, they get pretty wacky.

  Thanks for the link, btw!

• 

   on  11/03  at  10:47 PM

  
  

  This country got the leader it deserves, and I don’t mean that in a positive way. If the majority of the people are blind enough to look past the failed policies of the Bush administration and their disastrous results then they deserve another four years of the same failed policies until they wake up and start facing reality

• 

  Jon  on  11/04  at  08:10 AM

  
  

  meh, I felt the same way Jeff is 1996.

  I didn’t think the majority was blind, just misled.  The 1994 congressional revolt held check against Clinton’s more progressive agenda.

  But now with strong leads in both the houses, we can drive full on with strong proven policies and keep this country great…

  Right?

• Referenced by: From Behind the Wall of Sleep at 2004 11 06 01:41:24
  Purple America In a previous post, I said that a close look at the election results data would show that Democrats and Republicans dwell right next to each other, side-by-side. It’s only

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