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Home » Looking at the 2010 map

Looking at the 2010 map

The New Neo Posted on by

More random reflections on looking at this map of House results:

Quite a few states are either all red or all blue. But among those that are mixed, not too many are spotted. In other words, the red-blue divide within states often follows distinct geographic lines running either east-west or north-south, or (as in the case of liberal strongholds California, Oregon, and Washington) coastal vs. interior. Of course, the other divide in most states tends to be rural/urban.

Regions tend to be blocks, as well. New England now emerges as probably the most generally liberal area of the country, I regret to say. If you look at the map and mouse over it, you’ll see how strongly Democratic it remains, with Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine posting big Democratic victories and representing completely solid oceans of blue. In fact, those are the only states in the union that are solid blue, and they are all in New England.

And then there’s anomalous New Hampshire. Remember that motto, the one the other New England states laugh at, and which periodically comes up for repudiation by the state itself but thus far has survived: “live free or die“? That libertarian streak is a good part of the reason New Hampshire has turned back to the Republican side.

The map of the US is now predominantly red, but looks can be deceiving. The reddest states tend to be low in population. And because of the Democrat/urban link, my guess is that Democrats will try to take advantage of that and become ever more intent on abolishing the Electoral College if they ever should come back to power.

Comments

Looking at the 2010 map — 43 Comments

  1. Losing the Electoral College would probably eventually create a dictatorship of urbanites over country folk with the needs/costs of urban areas being imposed on rural areas.

    In my opinion, that would be a very, very bad thing for America.

    More deeply, I don’t think humans are evolved to easily live in large cities. For millions of years we lived in small groups/tribes. It’s only recently (last few thousand years) that we have lived in large cities. Cities are pretty stressful.

    I was raised in a large city and have to get my “big city cultural fix” occasionally but it’s nothing I’m especially proud of. It’s mostly a need for excitement and stimulation.

  2. All true, but only at the Federal level – at the state level, the GOP now controls both houses of the Maine and New Hampshire state legislatures. The same is true for some of the other blue islands – Minnesota and Wisconsin have GOP control of both houses as well. It’s a trend worth watching, at least. I don’t have a good single source for overall state house results – I’m having to piecemeal these from several sources.

  3. OldMathGuy: yes, the Maine state legislature results are very interesting, because Maine is a much more liberal state than NH. But Maine has also been in the financial dregs for a long time; that’s what’s going on with the legislative shift there, IMHO.

  5. I agree, and also note that these are “New England Republicans” who tend to be further left than, oh, say, Texas Republicans. After all, Maine would be totally red on a Federal Senatorial map, but the *particular* Senators involved have been known to disappoint the party faithful with a vote here and there…

  6. From a commenter at Legal Insurrection
    “Today is the day the seas began to rise again.”

  7. I was amazed when I looked at the map and saw that New Jersey was solidly red.

    Then as I moused over it, I noticed several districts were won by Democrats. Doing a bit more research, I learned that 7 of New Jersey’s 13 districts were won by Democrats. I guess those districts cover tiny geographic areas but are very densely populated – which distorts the map.

  8. I have been a long distance touring motorcyclist for over 40 years, and I have traveled all over that map. In terms of friendliness, pleasantness, and helpfulness, the red areas are best. Finding a conversation in Alabama, Texas, Utah, or Idaho is easy. Finding one and a smile in New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut is tough.

  9. People who own private property value it, the same with, especially, hard earned money. People who have neither, have significantly less respect for “other people’s money”, especially in the context of mob rule, the politics of envy, and its derivations; a very old struggle and story…

  10. That big blue streak in Utah still bugs me a bit. Mathison seems a decent sort, but he’s voted solidly Democrat on the biggest bills of late, all of them Very Bad Ideas. He plays the everyman card well, but when it really matters, he’s proven to be just another D. I’m still surprised many of my neighbors don’t understand that.

  11. Last night I went to bed when Elliot Cutler was ahead (Maine). This morning on my way in to work, I had the local morning show on, and they said “We are here with governor-elect Paul LePage…” and I was like cool. Then, they said “It also appears that republicans took both the House and the Senate…” I was like “WHAT THE FRIG DID YOU JUST SAY!!!!!!” I wonder what my fellow commuters thought of the expression on my face just then.

    And yes I am also of the persuasion that rural areas esp. in the South can be among the better places. My reasoning is this: you know how people make a big deal about having urban “street smarts”, like it is a good and desirable thing to have? Well there is also such a thing as rural “street smarts” often called “country wisdom”, that is often dismissed as being “redneck” but it is actually a good and desirable thing to have too.

  13. We have our work cut out for us. Some of those urban districts voted 90 or 95% Democrat (80% for Charlie Rangel!). The biggest cities, the Coastal districts along the Pacific and Southern New England are fortresses for the Left.

    There is an interesting correlation with the most expensive real estate: the social, economic, and cultural elite is in political alliance with the urban underclass. One group affects socialism to avoid the Evil Eye and because someone else can be made to pay for them; their allies just want the money…and maybe revenge, as it turns out.

    So it may be that we have just about reached the point where there is complete alignment between politics and more fundamental social divisions. Perhaps no one is going to be reasoned out of their position from here on out, because the basic differences have nothing to do with reason: it’s all emotion, and there is almost no language available to communicate across the chasm. What can you do when it is an article of faith that Republicans are mean? When it is social suicide to admit that you are a Republican? This is a social phenomenon, not an ideological debate.

    All of our strategy needs to be aimed at inducing more “changers” inside the fortresses. We will need a forward strategy to break up the Left’s psychological and institutional bases.

  14. The Repubs go in
    the Dems go out
    Then barney wags his finger about
    they do the hokey pokey and they turn us all around
    that’s what its all about

    did you ever look at the outlines of some of the districts for the most powerful people?

    Take a look at “Barneys” district…

    Its OBVIOUSLY drawn to pool votes to create such strongholds… (i never looked at Reids)

  15. The Electoral College is the last remaining link to the original American Republic, and I think it was intentionally designed to prevent the cities and more populous states from wielding disproportionate power.

    If it ever goes, the Republic is dead, and we will have a pure democracy; which will inevitably be followed by some form of dictatorship. We are dangerously close to pure democracy right now.

    As James Madison said,

    Democracy is the most vile form of government… democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

  16. Wise up Californians !

    We are already seeing signs of following France and Greece towards civil unrest as our financial picture gets uglier over the years…

    it doesn’t have to be this way. You can stop thinking of Republicans as the boogeyman now…

  18. It almost looks as if the population is sorting itself out.

    But for what? Secession?

  20. “The reddest states tend to be low in population.”

    Good argument for keeping the electoral college. Also a good argument for repealing the 17th Amendment and returning to state legislatures choosing US Senators. Al Franken being the other conspicuously great arguments for this.

    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  21. California, Illinois and New York are now (or still) owned by the Democratic party. They will turn the Democrats in the those states conservative (doubtful) or they will be a lesson to the rest of us.

    Its actually hard to tell which the answer will be. Democrats may turn conservative when standing at death’s door.

    I doubt the Republicans in Congress will bail them out.

  22. Yes, California, Illinois, and New York are heavily Democrat. They are also broke as a result. At some point liberals are mugged by reality. I think that happened in New Jersey when Christie was elected.

    These failing states have substantial out migration of middle class residents to the south and mountain states. They see the collapse, but they don’t see the cause. When they arrive in the new area they try to make it like what they left. Many a southerner have heard the new resident from the north explain how they did things in New York. That’s why Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina have become swing states.

  23. Mr. Frank:
    Pennsylvania, too. Sure it went Republican last night, but it hasn’t been reliably Republican for 20 years or more. And the margin was too damn close for comfort. Depending on the circumstances, it could just as easily swing back to the Democrats in 2012.

  24. We can also add Delaware to California, Illinois, and New York as bluer-than-blue states. They’ve made their decision. Their only House seat went to the Democrat candidate by about the same margin as the Senate seat, roughly 60-40.

    I don’t know whether the Democrat who won the House seat is a self-confessed Marxist, though.

  25. Artfldgr: Barney Frank’s District 4 is well-known in Massachusetts for its purposely meandering nature. Here it is.

    And take a look at Massachusetts District 3. The joke that goes along with it is that it was designed that way because “Worcester wanted a warm water port.”

  27. Since it is being discussed, here are maps of the 20 most Gerrymandered districts. It is only fitting and proper that Congressman Frank, a representative of the state that introduced the term “Gerrymandering” to the English language, is included.

    There are a lot of Democratic Party representatives on the list. Why should we be surprised?

  28. Lordy Gringo,

    CA, NC, Maryland are popular in that list of 20.

    That’s what happens after you take drugs – spiders on drugs make the worst looking webs. 🙂

  29. Shouldn’t a salesman planning his business trip around which towns he has a mistress in also be called Gerrymandering? I’m just sayin….

  30. I’ve lived in NH for 13 years. I’ve freelanced for local newspapers. I’m a ballot clerk. You are right about the libertarian streak, neo. Most people in my town are proudly “undeclared” and do not identify with Republicans or Democrats. They mostly do not expect or trust Washington and politicians to fix things. Funding of town services and schools, with the attendant committees, boards and decision-making, is probably more “local” than most other places in the U.S. New Hampshirites vote against things and people more than for them and have a strong desire to be left alone. (We are the 50th Most Extroverted State, I read somewhere a few years ago.) Our Democrats, rather than being members of special interest groups like unions, tend to be busybody women who want to “help” and have vague, idealized notions of social justice and niceness. We just voted them all out. For the first time in 26 years, Republicans won 297 of New Hampshire’s 400 house seats. I think a lot of people simply went down the Republican column and checked every box on their ballots on Tuesday. And I think in large part we have Nancy Pelosi and her oversized gavel to thank. We voted to get her, and her kind, out of our face.

  32. oblio – well put.

    Amy, your assessment of the NH character is pretty accurate. As you approach the SE border however, it becomes more like MA. And Concord has been liberal for years. Drop hints where you are in the state if you choose – I’ll figure it.

    Full quote: “Live Free Or Die. Death is not the worst of evils.”

  33. Assistant, I don’t mind saying, I live in the Seacoast, in North Hampton. The real liberals live in and near Portsmouth and Durham, oh and Exeter. Our town is politically mixed, and in interesting ways. The lines are drawn and sides taken up over building and zoning and open space issues, and sometimes over education spending, and you will find liberals and conservatives on either side – well, liberals are more predictable. I take minutes for our town budget committee and there are registered Republicans and registered Democrats on the 9-member committee, and their positions on local budgeting issues are rarely predictable by party. I am a strong believer in small government, and decision-making on the most “local” level possible. It’s a lot less ideological that way, and more personalized, and people are happier with decisions they are involved in. For example, I and many other temperamentally conservative town residents would resist rule-making from Concord and Washington about what kids would and wouldn’t be offered at lunchtime, then volunteer for a wellness committee in our K-8 that decides just that.

  34. A “republican” form of government means that the voters do not make laws themselves but, instead, delegate the job to periodically elected officials (Congressmen, Senators, and the President). The United States has a “republican” form of government regardless of whether popular votes for presidential electors are tallied at the state-level (as has been the case in 48 states) or at district-level (as has been the case in Maine and Nebraska) or at 50-state-level (as under the National Popular Vote bill).

    State-by-state winner-take-all laws to award electoral college votes were eventually enacted by 48 states AFTER the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

    The Founding Fathers only said in the U.S. Constitution about presidential elections (only after debating among 60 ballots for choosing a method): “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . .” The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the state legislatures over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as “plenary” and “exclusive.”

    Neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, universal suffrage, and the 48 state-by-state winner-take-all rule) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation’s first presidential election.

    In 1789, in the nation’s first election, the people had no vote for President in most states, Only men who owned a substantial amount of property could vote.

    In 1789 only three states used the state-by-state winner-take-all rule to award electoral votes.

    The winner-take-all rule is not entitled to any special deference based on history or the historical meaning of the words in the U.S. Constitution. The current 48 state-by-state winner-take-all rule (i.e., awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in a particular state) is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, the debates of the Constitutional Convention, or the Federalist Papers. The actions taken by the Founding Fathers make it clear that they never gave their imprimatur to the winner-take-all rule.

    The constitutional wording does not encourage, discourage, require, or prohibit the use of any particular method for awarding the state’s electoral votes.

    As a result of changes in state laws enacted since 1789, the people have the right to vote for presidential electors in 100% of the states, there are no property requirements for voting in any state, and the state-by-state winner-take-all rule is used by 48 of the 50 states.

  35. Amy,

    Thanks for the link to the Dave Carter piece. He is dead on about the CT and Mass drivers. They are not very nice people.

    Many years ago a fellow by the name of William Least Heat Moon wrote a best selling book called “Blue Highways” which gave some revealing insights into the regional differences between Americans. He traveled all over the country in a beat up Ford van. I recommend it highly.

  37. I read that book and it is very entertaining and educating.

    Here in California we just saw the the triumph of the policy of enslavement and fear. The winners are losers and the losers never stood for anything. The one who almost won, Van Tran, was the exception.

    Pamela Geller has a nice list of what we need to keep focused on:

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/

    and also quotes the same Churchill as Neo.

    And the October surprise continues:

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/11/fasten_your_seatbelts.html

  38. Some time ago I heard that MA is bad on accidents but good on fatalities. Evidence for the first contention is in the second table here. Some evidence for the first contention, respectively from a leftist NGO and an insurance Web site, is here and here.

  39. gs

    Heavy urban traffic and aggressive driving produce lots of wrecks and few fatalities. States with high fatality rates tend to have open spaces with high speeds.

    A problem in the northeast is low speed limits on freeways. That creates crowding because the slower you go, the longer you are on the road. Nanny state government agencies want to slow you down to make you safe.

  41. Assistant, then there’s a decent chance I know him! By the way, I like Theoden’s answer.

  42. I suspect that much of New Hampshire’s spirit derives from the Scots-Irish who settled there (instead of going, as did most of their Ulster brethren, to western Pennsylvania or Virginia’s Great Valley and from there on to the southern Appalachians). “Live Free or Die” is a frequent creed among the mountain/hill folk of the Upper South.

  43. ridgerunner
    I suspect that much of New Hampshire’s spirit derives from the Scots-Irish who settled there ..

    No doubt about it, the Scots-Irish are an ornery bunch.
    I didn’t realize that about “live free or die” being common in the mountains and hills of the upper South.

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