The Iron Yuppie

BBC News Electoral Map of Historical Elections

This is kind of cool... interesting to see how united our country used to be, either for one candidate or the other. Is this a cause or an effect of the way that we view politics today?

One thing that has always amazed me is how people discuss states like "Red state" and "Blue state" as though 100% of the people in that state felt a certain way. But that's proveably not the case! To go back to one of my favorite sites, electoral-vote.com, even in an unbelievably blue or red state (TX or MA as examples), the populous is not voting 100% blue or red! There are still 30-40% of the population in that state who supports the alternative candidate.

The interesting part about this is that when we look at talk shows or newspapers or blogs or whatever to evaluate the two positions, there is absolutely no room for subtley whatsoever. I realize that demonizing and skewing the opposing side is a wonderful motivator but the map shows... if you alienate the other side, you're alienating ~40-50% of the people. And if that other side loses, they're going to be pissed, because you've made it clear that they are the devil. And if you lose to them, you're going to be pissed, because you hate them and how could you lose to the devil.

I'm not saying we should all get together and hold hands, but there's got to be a better way for debate and discussion to happen in this country. If nothing else, PLEASE realize that the person on the other side is a rational human being who probably has done some thinking and believes what they believe for a fairly rational reason. PLEASE try and at least understand that reason without trying to convince them that they are wrong. Then when you don't agree with the reason (and you won't), say thank you very much and walk away. They are not the devil; they just do not see things the same way you do. There, isn't that better?

D