Turning a red state bright orange
At a South Dakota barbecue, a colorful young woman proved why America's red-blue divide is mostly a bunch of B.S. - by Garrison Keillor:
...But Mitchell [South Dakota] enjoys you, Mademoiselle L'Orange. It admires your spunk, your gumption, your sense of hilarity, the way you swan around us plain Midwesterners and throw your head back and laugh. You are right not to assume our disapproval. Too many Orangists do this. They tend to gravitate toward the coasts, which is perfectly understandable, but you shouldn't assume the hostility of the Great In-Between. Don't alienate people who aren't necessarily your enemy. The red/blue business is 78 percent B.S. There's a lot of purple going around, and mauve and magenta. Red or blue, we know that life can be unfair, and hard work is not necessarily rewarded. The world can be merciless. Time marches on. The precipice lies ahead. This is not a Democratic or Republican point of view -- it's common knowledge.And knowing that, we love being around you, vegan L.A. lady at the Mitchell barbecue with your orange hair and 6-inch heels. I'm wearing a navy blue suit and white shirt and thank you for not drawing hard and fast conclusions about my politics and taste in companions. All of us here wish you well and want you to be happy, Miss Orange.
Anyone with half a brain already realized that the whole red-blue metaphor was a huge oversimplification. I knew more liberals, socialists, anarchists and communists Deep in the Heart of Texas (Austin) then I know here in solidly Democratic Chicago. A recent Nation article by John Nichols contains this factoid:
local leaders and coalitions shaping a new, more aggressive politics in what has begun to be referred to as an “urban archipelago” of major metropolitan centers, aging industrial cities and college towns that represent progressive blue islands in what appears on electoral maps to be a red sea of conservatism. These are crowded islands, with enough voters to influence politics far beyond their borders, and they remain bastions of American liberalism: Every American city with a population of more than 500,000 voted for John Kerry in 2004, as did about half the cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000. In virtually every state that backed the Democratic presidential nominee last year--even traditional Democratic strongholds like Illinois, New Jersey and Michigan--it was only thanks to overwhelming majorities in urban areas that Kerry prevailed.
Lest anyone forgot, the election in each electoral district was a lot closer than a solid red/blue state icon would indicate.
That is all.
Tags: Politics
