You know, looking at that map, it would be really interesting to see how an election would turn out if all the states split their EC votes like NE and ME…
Neat site, Mr. Eos…and agreed, more common, than different.
I see a lopsided butterfly with one leg in a cast… does that mean I need mental help? 
Watched this show last night on PBS called “Park Avenue”. If you get a chance watch it…
From the clip, it looks interesting.
I wouldn’t want to live on either of the Park Avenues.
In the show they referance back to the “school house rocks” cartoon on how a bill gets wrote and goes thru the process which of course isn’t the way it happens today. That part of the show I found interesting. Raise your hand if you remember the cartoon and believed that is the process they follow 
“I’m just a Bill”, or some such…I remember. Nowdays, SCOTUS and E.O.'s seem to be the “law” of the land.
“I’m just a bill, I’m only a bill, and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.”
Totally remember that. I forget which show did a goof on that bit, I wanna say it was Family Guy.
:edit:
Yep. Family Guy
Funny if a letter like that was written by someone on the right, the libs would be calling them racist and demanding that it be taken down. And yes I get that it’s supposed to be a joke.
How true!
It’s not supposed to be a joke. There is a huge resentment toward the people who are signing meaningless petitions in favor of succession, and all the responses I’ve seen so far are like this one (like a “don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out”) or on the more extreme side, the particularly thoughtless folks who are calling for anyone who signed such a petition to be “deported”. To where you might deport US citizens born and raised here is anyone’s guess, really. 
I think Bills map is more acurate and I have no problem letting them have the blue areas. They missed a few things like the Welfare, just a small part and then the prisons, thank goodness they kept them close instead of all out in the country. I may be wrong but if we did split right now, along those lines, I think blue would be the BIIIIG losers, between the bankrupt cities, welfare, and prisons alone, you have just taken on most of our debt.Not to mention the unions and the politicians themselves. Those guys just dont spend too much time and effort in the country.
For the most part country red necks just like myself, work for a living, run the crooks out of town, and as a matter of pride would never take a handout unless crippled or just too sick to work and then family kicks in, Not the goverment.
The schools we are missing I personally dont care much for anyhow. I honestly dont think we are losing anything as long as I can visit once in a while. Once you get over the intial crime wave when you repeal the gun laws. Our part would be more crime free as all the bad guys would head your way.
Really not kidding all that much, I am pretty sure thats the way it would go. I’m not trying to start an argument but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Wood… poverty is an urban problem. It also is a rural problem. You might be surprised to learn that a greater percentage of non-metro people receive government transfer payments than metro people and (on a per-capita basis) rural folks receive higher amounts. Pride and families are found in urban areas too. We are more alike than we are different.
Actually, red states typically have above average poverty levels (the highest actually) and blue states are lower. So yes, you are wrong wood.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2011/state.xls
:edit:
To save people who aren’t well-versed in using Excel from sorting the data, here are the top 10 states in terms of what percent of the population is living in poverty:
Mississippi
New Mexico
Arizona
District of Columbia
Louisiana
Georgia
Texas
Arkansas
Kentucky
West Virginia
Followed by
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Alabama
California
So you have to get to number 15 to hit a state with a huge city, and of the top 15 states with highest percentage of people living in poverty, 2 are blue, 1 is not a state (DC) and the rest are all red.
Blue states would do better than red in a split, seriously.
:edit again:
Here’s the report on federal aid, for the most current year available. 8 of the 14 states in the highest range for federal aid are red states. And if you look at the breakdown graphs, the top aid receiving states are not New York, California, and Illinois like you would expect if you think it’s all big-city blue state folks getting $ from Uncle Sam.
Okay, I get that there are more poor people that live in the country, based on income levels that I really doubt truly reflect cost of living there. An awful lot still live off the land somewhat, at least enough to offset their income.
What about debt? I,m real curious to see how that stacks up?
Mr eos, I dont for a second doubt that pride and family are inportant to a lot of people all over this nation, city and country alike.
Maybe I was mistaken in thinking that welfare as well as crime were more concentrated in the populus areas. No offence intended.
So are you telling me that someone wrote that and was expected to be taken seriously? I’m not going to pick it apart bit by bit, but calling yourself enlightened and making those kinds of ignorant statements is pretty much the epitome of hypocrisy.
I’m kind of disappointed we got off on this red map blue map discussion. Regardless of which map you use it only displays the majority voting party in each area. I live in a blue section but as I’ve already disclosed I am not affiliated with either party and certainly not the Democrats. You won’t ever get a true picture unless you have a map that breaks it down by individual rooms in individual residences. That’s right, even some people that live in the same house vote different parties. And we also would somehow have to account for the 45% of the population who doesn’t vote at all. It seems to me that we’ve fallen into the same trap of divisiveness that has become so popular in modern politics. No wonder our ruling parties have such an easy time staying in power.
Yes, the politicians have done a good job of dividing the country.
Question about the maps:
Why is the northeast corner of Minnesnowta blue.
No big cities, you think it would be red.
And the northwest corner of Wisconsin, what’s up with that.
You don’t count Minneapolis/St Paul as a large city?
And why would it be red, not blue, without a big city? There are multiple states in New England that don’t have a single big city yet still are blue.
Here’s an interesting read that’s been making the rounds, it’s got some coarse language but makes some really great points
And his response to his huge rise in popularity after writing that, which addresses some of the things I had wondered about after reading that (including his use of language which I am fine with but could see others finding appalling)
http://www.ericgarland.co/2012/11/13/white-guy-2-electric-boogaloo/
The pages are slow to load, because so many people are reading them right now. It’s all the rage. 
First, TMH, Mpls/St. Paul is not part of the great northern part of Minnesota. They might think they own northern Minn., but we simply tolerate their tourism dollars in the summer - much the way Arizona tolerates them during the snow-bird season.
Zman - I’m certainly not an expert on demographics or why people vote the way they do. My belief, though, is that NE Minn and NW Wisc are “blue” due to the historical strength of labor and unionization coupled with roots in Scandanavian and central European immigration. “Socialism” is not as disparaging of a label as elsewhere, and people generally trust and value good government. This is a mining area - iron ore - with lots of supporting railroads - as well as ports/shipping - industries that have had strong unions. While the extraction-based economy has given way to a more diversified base, this remains a very populist-minded region. We did, however, oust an 18 term congressman in 2010 for the tea party candidate (now replaced with an old-school liberal), so none of this is etched in stone.