The Electoral College in Action
Thanks to Kyle over at The Ranting Haze for bringing this county by county election map to my attention. Like he says, “This is why the Electoral College works.” Complain if you will over the closeness of the popular vote, but do not say that our country is deeply divided. One look at this map gives you an idea of where the votes really came from.
Besides the obvious Pacific coast and New England urban centers that went blue for Kerry, also note areas like the border along Mexico, the border by Cuba (south Florida), the easter Rockies, the Mississippi Delta and the upper Mississippi river. I am still trying to figure out the strip running from southern MS, through AL and into GA. It’s not an interstate or a river, but does appear to encompass cities like Meridian (MS), Montgomery (AL), Columbus (GA) and Albany (GA). I was really glad to see that my native state of Pennsylvania only gave up the counties around Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Allentown.
Our founding fathers had so much foresight when they developed the Electoral College. Rather than tear us apart, the system adds cohesiveness to our nation. In order to win the presidency one must have a broad distribution of popular support. People in urban areas may not like that their shear numbers are thusly diminished, but would the bulk of the nation really want their president to have to kow-tow to New York and Los Angeles?
You are right, that’s not really what we mean. What were saying is that the electoral college is ensuring that the president has a broad distribution of support, such that densely populated urban areas cannot tip the scales too far in their favor. They still have some advantage, that is, in that states with high populations get more electoral votes.
The demographics of the vote are interesting when you break it down. I believe that the Democrats usually get 70% – 90% (or at least the majority) of the black vote. They’ll tell you that they could not win without it. Blacks don’t vote democratic because of the color of their skin, no more than white males vote republican because they are white. I do think, however, that we ought to be asking ourselves why people vote the way they do. Why does the black vote lean left, but the Hispanic vote is more 50/50? An honest critique of the cultural and socio-economic differences does not constitute racism.
Your friend is right that the electoral college preserves the two-party system, which the founders must have felt was stronger than a Parliamentary system. My personal political meter falls somewhere closer to the Libertarian/Constitution Party line, so my opinion is not fully wrapped up in the Republican Party platform. I do think, however, that for a main party to survive, it has to absorb elements from the third parties. That’s really why Nader ran this time around, to raise awareness of his party’s issues.
I put “black belt Alabama Georgia” in a Google search and came across this document to prove what I am saying. http://www.governorpress.alabama.gov/pr/ex-22-2004-08-11.asp
I heard about the region in college, it is fascinating to learn about
also, i don’t know exactly what you guys are getting at, here. how does black people being democratic make the electoral college more valid? cause it would be a shame if immigrants, minorities, and city-dwellers got to decide the election? i’m assuming this isn’t what you mean, but i’m having trouble understanding what you do mean.
my friend also explained to me that the electoral college keeps the two-party system intact here. which i think is why we see our country as so evenly divided along partisan lines: we’re not given a chance to see the actual diversity of opinion there is out there, cause we’re only given two possible choices, red or blue. now, whether that’s right or not is a different question.
You know, BTI, at first I couldn’t decide if you were serious or if that was a joke…but I think you are serious. I have driven through that area enough to know that they grow cotton, so it sounds plausible. It also seems like such a desolate and unpopulated area (at least the section that I pass through between Montgomery and Mobile). Considering the way the vote went in the Delta (which may be the poorest place in N.A.) I’m not surprised at all now by that strip.
That is what is commonly known as the “black belt.” Called that for its dark black soil, good for growing cotton, it was where many of the larger plantations were. Ironically and consequently, many of the counties are 75%+ black in population. They are also some of the poorest areas in North America. Here in GA and in parts of AL & MS, there are still folk who live in the “black belt” without running water.
ah, this is what you’ve been doing. bad-mouthing urbanites behind their backs.
can’t resist posting something really funny by alan sondheim (you’re gonna hate me, this is so long, but oh well):
“VOTE NEW YORK!!!
It’s easy to vote this election! Vote the New York way! We’re the
smartest
city in America and that makes New York State the smartest state! (In
spite of Albany!) We have the major museums! The biggest shows! In this
city we have neighborhoods from over one hundred and twenty countries!
Where I live we have the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Mark Morris
dance studios – a huge building devoted to one company, built from the
ground up! New York Dolls! Bella Abzug! We have radio stations for
every
taste! Our cultural economy is tremendous – where else can you find
regularly, at a thrift shop, Benjamin and Frege, Pavese, and Madison’s
The
Hermeneutics of Postmodernity? We have the major newspapers, magazines,
cultural journals, anywhere in the English-speaking world! We are the
home
of Yiddish theater and hiphop and just about every form of jazz ever
created or discovered! We’re the city that produces around the clock,
that
never sleeps at night, that constantly moves, dances, and thinks! Our
daily news is almost always political, and our ball team is one of the
best in the country – so good in fact, that we let Boston have the
series
this time! And we’re liberal enough to tolerate a bit of fascism as
Bush
and his cohorts coughed their way through a national convention! Bill
Clinton! The West Village! Civil right and wrongs! We’ve got the best
artists, and poetry begins and ends here, no matter what you heard
about
the west coast! Our art’s so important Terry Allen had to make fun of
it!
We’ve got institutions like St Marks and the Met (which
“I am still trying to figure out the strip running from southern MS, through AL and into GA. It’s not an interstate or a river, but does appear to encompass cities like Meridian (MS), Montgomery (AL), Columbus (GA) and Albany (GA).”
In all honesty, I was thinking the same thing. I can’t figure out exactly what makes that such a Democratic stonghold. I may have to do a little investigating, but I would guess that there’s a large black population in those areas.
That was funny…leave it to a New Yorker to say something like that!