Shades of Purple

As we all begin to prepare ourselves for next year's circus of empty promises and special-interest pandering, also known as the Presidential Election, I thought it might be a good time to bring to light an interesting image I found recently. Hopefully, this will help put to rest the myth of the red and blue America. But first things first...

Barack Obama for President!

Sorry, just had to get that out.

Anyway, remember all those depressing maps after the 2004 election? You know the ones I'm talking about. They're the red-state-blue-state maps that show the results by county. There were also some more humorous versions floating around that I enjoyed a bit more. Anyway, after seeing such a black and white version of the election results I got incredibly depressed at the tsunami of right-wing intolerance and ignorant redneck nationalism that seemed to be enveloping all the prettiest parts of the country.

Ok, I guess that's not really fair. I don't necessarily think that ALL Republicans are flag-waving, moronic sheep. Well, ok...maybe I do.

I'm kidding, of course...
sort of.

Now, on the other hand, I'm not saying that Democrats are all that and a bag of chips, either. They're just better at hiding their intolerance and bigotry.

Anyway, it always seemed misleading to see the country so polarized either by state, or even county. I mean, there has got to be at least ONE progressive liberal in Utah, right? Ok, that might be asking too much.

So this evening I found this animated map that gives a much more realistic picture of America. Forget all this "Red State - Blue State" crap. Sure there are places that lean more heavily toward one end or another of the political spectrum, such as all the states that Sonja and I have lived in the past seven years. But for the most part, the political map of the U.S. over the past 47 years has really been covered in various shades of purple.


Cool, huh? Now, if we can just eliminate the electoral college and let every vote count. What a novel idea, eh?

Someday, maybe. However, until then...

Go, dark purple!!