Thanks to Ain’t No Bad Dude Brian Linse for pointing me to this Matt Welch piece at TechCentralStation. Like Matt, I also remember that fascinating Red/Blue November 2000 county by county election map. However as a Libertarian (colour as yet unassigned) I had a relatively neutral perspective on it, whiich is perhaps why a certain feature absolutely jumped out and screamed at me.
The election was not Republican vs Democrat. It was City Folk vs Country Folk. The only exception to his was the democractic strip up the southern Mississippi, an area inhabited by the descendents of black sharecroppers.
The Democrats should be asking themselves: “Why do Country Folk hate us?” Likewise and reversely the Republicans.
I wonder if the divide is bridgeable? City folk may have simply drifted too far into the Disney version of the land and nature to be able to communicate with those who grew up with the real thing.
Perhaps the crossing over effect Matt speaks of was simply the reaction to common danger by un-common people. Perhaps blogging will keep at least a semblance of debate going, but I think the differences run deeper than he fears.
