Monday, November 08, 2004
A New Kind of Electoral Map
I just found this site, which uses an algorithm to create a map where area is proportional to population. It creates an electoral map by county that shows more accurately than the traditional red-blue map the way the country voted in last week's elections.
This map, as you can see, uses various shades of purple to indicate where the vote was close. Of course, the most populous counties are all bright blue, and the least populous counties tend to be bright red. Me, I just like to look at it. It's like Idaho and Montana are a black hole, sucking the rest of the country in. One comment I found on the net about this map was that it was "like butterflies exploding." Bad, bad map, though, because it conveniently forgets that Alaska and Hawaii are valid states.
I wonder why it is that urban people are so much more Democratic than rural people? I think it's because Democrats tend to be the very poor (who want the government to take care of them) and the very rich (who don't want to have to take care of the poor on their own--let the government do it). The middle class lives in the suburbs or more rural areas. I'm convinced that's why DC voted so heavily for Kerry--no one but very rich or very poor people lives in the District. The middle-class Republican types live in the Virginia or Maryland suburbs.
A friend of mine made another possible explanation of this phenomenon, relating the urban-rural dichotomy to the nonreligious-religious dichotomy (churchgoing people are far more likely to vote Republican). She said that when you live in a big city, you're not in as much direct contact with God's creations, and it's more difficult to be reminded of God's role in your life. I can see how that might be one factor among many, though I don't know if it's a cause or an effect. Living at the base of the mountains in Utah constantly gave me a sense of respect and wonder for God's power and love for his children. Living here in inner-city Cambridge, I just think about how many hundreds of years ago a cow walked through the bushes here to create this particular road I'm driving down. Not nearly as reverent a feeling.
This map, as you can see, uses various shades of purple to indicate where the vote was close. Of course, the most populous counties are all bright blue, and the least populous counties tend to be bright red. Me, I just like to look at it. It's like Idaho and Montana are a black hole, sucking the rest of the country in. One comment I found on the net about this map was that it was "like butterflies exploding." Bad, bad map, though, because it conveniently forgets that Alaska and Hawaii are valid states.
I wonder why it is that urban people are so much more Democratic than rural people? I think it's because Democrats tend to be the very poor (who want the government to take care of them) and the very rich (who don't want to have to take care of the poor on their own--let the government do it). The middle class lives in the suburbs or more rural areas. I'm convinced that's why DC voted so heavily for Kerry--no one but very rich or very poor people lives in the District. The middle-class Republican types live in the Virginia or Maryland suburbs.
A friend of mine made another possible explanation of this phenomenon, relating the urban-rural dichotomy to the nonreligious-religious dichotomy (churchgoing people are far more likely to vote Republican). She said that when you live in a big city, you're not in as much direct contact with God's creations, and it's more difficult to be reminded of God's role in your life. I can see how that might be one factor among many, though I don't know if it's a cause or an effect. Living at the base of the mountains in Utah constantly gave me a sense of respect and wonder for God's power and love for his children. Living here in inner-city Cambridge, I just think about how many hundreds of years ago a cow walked through the bushes here to create this particular road I'm driving down. Not nearly as reverent a feeling.
Comments:
Actually your assessment is incorrect as it applies to the DC area. The middle-class suburbs around DC and in NoVA are also Democratic. I think that it is more because of the large number of people in those areas who work for the federal government. Republicans constantly decry big government and threaten to cut the size (though they never do). Possibly so many of these civil servants are understandably nervous about electing someone who might put them out of a job.
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