In 2008, the term "purple state" was born. This year, with Pollster.com's palette of five color choices, perhaps the term should be "yellow state."
The image here was the map on Pollster.com a few weeks back in early October. This isn't my own screenshot of Pollster.com, but the reason I started this blog, with only 15 days left till the election, is that I wanted to
(a) post an image of the Pollster.com national map as it changes day by day, and
(b) discuss the implications.
Here in my first blog post, I want to raise something I've been thinking about for a while. Over the past 6 weeks or so, as more and more "yellows" have solidified into either the red or blue camp, Louisiana has emerged as having a special quality. And that is, it is a nucleus of redness. By which I mean, it is the only state--red or blue or yellow--that is surrounded only by deep red states. Am I the only one that thinks it fair to read this as a reflection of a deep kind of backwardness? The changing electoral map (read: today VA is deep blue, NC still yellow, GA now a light red) redefines what we can expect from "the South," especially the "Deep South." Louisiana's being surrounded by deeply red states seems to me a Red Shield, an insulation from new ideas, from the New Politics. You would think my home state, with the experience of Katrina and federal bungling, with the eccentricities of New Orleans and the laissez-faire Catholicism of the southern third of the state, with its sizable black population and having at least two cities of moderate size, would at least be a light red? But no, it has been a consistent deep red, and is surrounded by deep red. And while it's not surprising, it still saddens me deeply.
2 comments:
Is Minnesota really yellow today? I'm from there, and voting there again this year - come to think of it, I'm there right now! How is it not blue?
The image on my original post was from, I think, August. MN has been either dark blue or light blue the past month, so you're right.
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