MeanMrMustard's Musings

Political Geography 101

For some reason, I'm feeling particularly pissy tonight about the election. I expect I'll feel this way, for some reason, every night for the next four years or so -- barring impeachment, which seems unlikely with a Republican-controlled House, a Republican-controlled Senate and (most conveniently) no independent counsel law on the books. But I digress.

Because I'm feeling pissy, I present you with the following.

Here's a map of the Election Night 2004 results as they stand today.



Okay. Courtesy of the marvelous Kevin Drum, here's a map of which states are net contributers to the federal budget, versus those that get more from the federal government than they pay in.



Not too different, is it? It seems that, for the most part, those nasty liberals on the West Coast, Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the northern Atlantic coast are paying everybody else's way.

Let's move on. Here's a map of the "slave" and "free" territories prior to the Civil War. Green represents free states and territories, red is slave states, and yellow is territories open to slavery.



It might not be fair to characterize the West Coast, the Great Lakes states and the Northeast as more or less enlightened, and the South, the plains states and the Rocky Mountain states as ignorant racist hicks. So I won't. Feel free to do so yourself, if you like.

Finally, let's look at the intelligence of the electorate, as compared to their voting patterns (borrowed from Christopher Evans).

	State	Avg. IQ	2004
1	Connecticut	113	Kerry
2	Massachusetts	111	Kerry
3	New Jersey	111	Kerry
4	New York	109	Kerry
5	Rhode Island	107	Kerry
6	Hawaii	106	Kerry
7	Maryland	105	Kerry
8	New Hampshire	105	Kerry
9	Illinois	104	Kerry
10	Delaware	103	Kerry
11	Minnesota	102	Kerry
12	Vermont	102	Kerry
13	Washington	102	Kerry
14	California	101	Kerry
15	Pennsylvania	101	Kerry
16	Maine	100	Kerry
17	Virginia	100	Bush
18	Wisconsin	100	Kerry
19	Colorado	99	Bush
20	Iowa	99	Bush
21	Michigan	99	Kerry
22	Nevada	99	Bush
23	Ohio	99	Bush
24	Oregon	99	Kerry
25	Alaska	98	Bush
26	Florida	98	Bush
27	Missouri	98	Bush
28	Kansas	96	Bush
29	Nebraska	95	Bush
30	Arizona	94	Bush
31	Indiana	94	Bush
32	Tennessee	94	Bush
33	North Carolina	93	Bush
34	West Virginia	93	Bush
35	Arkansas	92	Bush
36	Georgia	92	Bush
37	Kentucky	92	Bush
38	New Mexico	92	Bush
39	North Dakota	92	Bush
40	Texas	92	Bush
41	Alabama	90	Bush
42	Louisiana	90	Bush
43	Montana	90	Bush
44	Oklahoma	90	Bush
45	South Dakota	90	Bush
46	South Carolina	89	Bush
47	Wyoming	89	Bush
48	Idaho	87	Bush
49	Utah	87	Bush
50	Mississippi	85	Bush

From all of this, I suppose one might reasonably conclude that Kerry voters are enlightened, intelligent and self-reliant, while Bush voters are bigoted, stupid and love to suck at the government's teat. As I said, I'm in a pissy mood. But I think this sort of data must say something about why people vote the way they do.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 7:58 PM