County-by-County Election Map

[ubiquity0]

Originally posted by JTO
My theory is that those who live in the city tend to be less self-reliant and look to government for help. Those who live in the country tend to be more self reliant. It has nothing to do with IQ (or maybe it does .

Rural people like independence, the outdoors, shooting and hunting, burning their garbage... They like less regulation and want to just live as they choose...

What exactly do you mean by “look to government for help”? Can you be more specific?

I would agree that rural dwellers do prefer less regulation as they are in a position to be self-sufficient for things like water supply, electricity, garbage disposal etc. It’s a two-edge sword though, say if any significant amount of rural dwellers were gay, or had gay friends or family members they may not feel that the government is acting in their interests to live as they choose.

[ubiquity0]

What percentage of the US lives in a truly ‘rural’ environment though? I think we are talking more about the ‘urban’ to ‘low-density-suburban’ differences.

[juanbenae]

the country folks' gay, free spirited, or forward thinking friends/family look to get out of the sticks as soon as possible. how many stories (book or other media) start with the main charcter looking to "get out of this one horse town" so they dont have to continue to be in that world.

[JTO]

My friends who voted for Kerry tend to carry a lot of fear. Fear of illness, fear of crime, fear of what the world will think of the US if certain actions are taken. Often they express the opinion that "the state should..." or, "the government needs to stop...."

In general, those people I know that voted for Bush tend not to carry a lot of fear. They don't look to governmnet to protect them from the threat-of-the-week. They do blame the government when it gets in the way of doing what they believe are their rights though. Examples tend to be resource use, hunting and shooting, land use, over regulation, etc.

My $0.02. This is by no means hard facts, just thoughtful opinion.
Troy

[turbo6bar]

jyl, I hope you're still watching this thread.

I've been searching for voter demographics, but I'm only finding stuff for past elections.

Here's an interesting article:
http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/Joined.pdf

Clinton and the Democrats gained support from those with less education. Based on posts in the OT forum, I was led to believe the educated elite preferred the Democrats....

Also, from another thread, Aurel points out that Democrat-leaning states had higher income than Rep-leaning states (obviously implying Democrats are wealthy or better-off). From http://www.maitreg.com/politics/elections/2000/exitpolls.asp
(wish I had some real stats):

Both Gore and Nader did well with voters of lower incomes, and Bush did well among voters with higher incomes.
Gore won a large majority of voters who consider themselves to be "upper class", while Bush won a large majority of those who consider themselves to be "upper-middle class"

[jyl]

Thanks, turbo6, I am still trying to follow the thread although work was so busy this is the first time I've looked at PP BBS since getting to the office.

The stuff you posted is interesting. Actually, this whole issue is really interesting.

I've mostly been a big-city person - born in NYC, moved around a lot as a kid (US, Canada, Europe), then settled in CA. These are mostly "blue" places.

But I've also spent a lot of time, for the last 12 years or so, in a smaller city in Central WA. The town is Yakima, for those who know the state. There's a lot of agriculture (hops, apples), some light industry, a good bit of timber, some good fishing (Yakima River through the canyon), a big military base nearby (Army tank warfare training center) Yakima is definitely a "red" place.

Some people grow up in Yakima and love it, and some grow up there and don't love it. The latter usually leave - often they go find work in Seattle or other "blue" places. I know Seattle somewhat well too - lived there for a while. I was thinking about the difference between those two places, and what makes one a "red" place and the other a "blue" place. That's kind of what this thread is about, which is why it is so interesting to me. I'm glad cegerer posted the map.

[rsvp914]

the map is somewhat misleading due to population differences in counties

[bryanthompson]

I thought that was the purpose of the map.

[pwd72s]

Maybe it's not city people vs. hicks. Could it be as simple as the dense population areas having a greater concentration of bureaucrats as a %age of area population? People who get their paychecks from government tend to vote liberal. The "unions" mentioned in the press are really teacher's and public employee "unions". In the Oregon map..it's the Portland area and further South, Lane county...Eugene, the home of the U of O, a huge economic power down there.