Entertaining Map
Thursday, November 11th, 2004 - 1:14pm
I'm sure most of you have seen this, as it's hitting the chain e-mail lists lately. Rather amusing, and also slightly disturbing, having lived on both sides of the Mason-Dixon in my life. There is definitely a major culture shift, and I can honestly attest that when I lived in rural Louisiana, a lot of the southeastern vote is anti-minority/pro-Christian-morality. Now, don't misunderstand me on the Christian morality point; I'm not saying it's necessarily bad to vote based on those views, but I have seen a lot of cases in my life where people are easily manipulated into voting just because "the Republicans are moral and the Democrats are atheists!"
Disgusting indeed.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
Oh wait, I get it. It seems that the election was won by a bunch of homophobe racists that have more in common with the Klan and the Confederacy than they do true American values! Oh, my that''s really funny! HAHAhahahahahahhahahahhahah! <wheeze> Rofllololololloololollolololl!
Ahem...
How insulting.
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
...they can also come bathe in the glorious, healing light of my Johnson. - Prederick
I find it a bit interesting that we all essentially agree with this concept, but it''s not leading to a stronger debate on elctoral reform as a whole. Having soundly lost this election can I bring up the topic of the electoral college as being outdated without sounding like I''m whining about the 2000 election again? Why must a state be ""red"" or ""blue"" ... why can''t it be purple? More specifically why can''t we at least see a system where states split their electoral votes by district?
- Elysium
I''ve been wanting to see a county map, thanks!
Funny (but entirely expected) to see Austin in its tiny bit of blue in the sea of Texas''s red (outside of the Valley).
I pretty much agree with this. Despite how my post apparently came across, I know that the nation is more purple than red/blue.
I do apologize if it was more tasteless than I thought it was. I will attest that there is a certain portion of the rural southern vote that is motivated by racism and/or bigotry. I grew up there, remember? We had a mock election for the state governor of Louisiana the year that David Duke, a well-known former Grand Dragon of the KKK, was running for governor. Only about 5 students in my school of about 400 didn''t vote for him, of whom 2 were myself and my sister.
And again, believe me: I knew the students, and they weren''t voting for Duke because he was an upstanding citizen.
Sorry for jumping on you, Farscry. It wasn''t personal, but I find all the ""values vote"" talk as just a way to pin blame on something that was more complex. I see the Red/Blue argument the same way. I guess I''m already girding myself for the inevitable holiday confrontation with my grandmother in law, who was a sweet old lady for years until she heard I voted for/intended to vote for Bush.
Can''t argue with the portion of your post that part of the region are racists, either. I''ve heard plenty (especially growing up), but in my perception, that attitude becomes less and less prevalent as time goes by. That may be because of my choice in friends, but I''d like to think it''s indicative of a trend. But I''d never say that the entire vote was because of the racists, homophobes, or holy rollers. I think it''s unfair to the many good, decent, hard-working people that live here. I''ll go a step further and say that the holy rollers, by and large, aren''t bad people... just obnoxious busy-bodies.
Anyway, sorry about the tone of my last post.
EDIT: For clarification... my original post made it sound as if I couldn''t argue with racists. Doh!
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
...they can also come bathe in the glorious, healing light of my Johnson. - Prederick
No problem, Buzzvang. I understand how I was easily misunderstood, and I''d be pretty outraged at my implications earlier as well.
You also bring up an interesting point, too: there are a lot of families that I know of who have some rifts in them over differences in this past election, moreso than in previous ones.
Not sure why it is; I think part of the reason we''ve all gotten so worked up in a tizzy is from the media and the political pundits going so stir-crazy, and here we are all listening to these more and more extreme comments all year.
While I may not like the outcome, I''m just glad it''s mostly over with so we can work on moving on.
As a Colorado resident, I didn''t...and voted against it.
Do I think the electoral college approach is best? No, absolutely not. The only benefit I think it provides is stability -- while limiting the number of viable parties it also has ensured that the United States has avoided the type of fragile ""coalition government"" nonsense that has plagued other democracies.
I opposed the measure here in Colorado for two simple reasons. First, it was retroactive, which immediately made me think that this was merely a type of Democratic party hail-mary plan in case 2004 turned out to be another 2000. But more importantly, I didn''t want my state to be the guinea pig. If we''re going to do this, let''s do it as a nation all at once rather than make half-assed steps towards that goal.
Proponents of the measure claimed that it would actually improve Colorado''s standing in the nation and benefit voters as it would cause candidates to spend more time here. I thought the opponents -- of which there were quite a few, including all the major papers as well as the senatorial candidates from both parties -- were correct in assessing that splitting the electoral vote would actually result in less attention paid to the state and its issues.
After all, under the current system all you need is 50.01% of the vote and you''ve earned all of Colorado''s 9 electoral points. Under a split vote, even the second-place candidate will likely walk away with 4 points (as opposed to just 5 for the winner). Candidates wouldn''t need to win Colorado, just avoid getting trounced.
Make this a national referendum, and I wouldn''t be surprised if it passes with a healthy margin. Otherwise, it''ll suffer from the same ""not in my state"" fate it did in Colorado.
I started my own blog so when I feel the need to make an ass out of myself, I won't have as far to go.