Great maps showing the 2004 -> 2008 shift county by county
by Vinay Gupta • November 7, 2008 • The Global Picture • 3 Comments
These maps of county-by-county shifts are really amazing.
The interesting conclusion – the south moved significantly to the Republican end, even in 2008. That should worry people.
The trend that you mention towards more Republican-leaning demographics in the South should be balanced against the largely unbroken increase in Democratic voting from Texas up to Virginia. As much a concern as increased conservatism is over this past election cycle, the ‘blue-ing’ of the South seems to be a reality as well.
I’m curious. Are these changes relative or absolute?
I say this because I think more people have voted this time than for previous elections. Maybe some people have temporarily woken up to democracy in general? I’ve heard fewer people vote in the US than in Europe, but I can’t provide a link for that hypothesis.
Charts are always interesting and have to be read carefully.
Honestly, I haven’t done my homework on this one. So if anyone cares to provide a deeper analysis, please share.
I know from experience how deep the divide has gotten here in the US. I had uncountable arguments with my own family members about the supposedly marxist/terrorist/muslim/radical black christian ‘background’ of our President elect (despite all of the internal contradictions of believing all of those things), and I’m sad to say that such quaint notions as logic and evidence have all but left the American conversation at this point. I hope the old American tradition of a presidential ‘honeymoon’ holds this time, but I have little confidence that will be the case. If so, with the ability of the R’s in the senate to filibuster anything and everything, I doubt much will get done in this Admin, which virtually guarantees an ugly collapse of US society.