subplotkudzu | Kermit the Frog Talks Politics

As promised, here's the next round of my political thoughts.

Some time ago Cambias and I were talking politics and upon hearing the GOTV strategy of trying to politically engage people in the supposedly "safe" areas so as to prevent your losses there from ovewhelming your wins in the areas that support you he indicated that he thought this was a really good idea. I agree. Not just from a "here's how you win" stance, or a "hey, that's completely legal" stace, but such mobilization prevents that polarization of people that I discussed earlier - the Big Sort as it's called. We all do better as citizens when we have to actually engage the people we disagree with in person as people rather than just their worst selves over the internet or the straw men we construct for ourselves.

So I get frustrated with the "red state/blue state" iconography - it only makes sense in relation to electoral votes being awarded on a winner take all basis, and it serves as an artificial wedge between "red" and "blue". So as an experiment I took the voting patterns in this election (the % of Democratic presidental vote in a state as of today from CNN.com) and broke that down into the entire spectrum - a Rainbow Connection of the USA. I'm a product of the old school, so I included Indigo. I do that. In the name of the preceived partisan differences I slotted the extra percentage point into Red (Highest Republican %) and Violet (Highest Democratic %), with everyone other color getting 14% of the vote.

Here's the breakdown:
Red (1-15% Democratic votes): 0 states

Orange (16-29% Dem ): 0 states

Yellow (30-43% Dem): 14 states - Utah, Oklahoma, Alaska, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, Mississippi, West Virginia.

Green (44-57% Dem): 24 states - Texas, Arizona, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon

Blue (58 to 71% Dem): 11 States - Maine, Washington, Connecticut, California, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont,

Indigo (72-85% Dem): 1 state - Hawaii (and I strongly suspect favorite son status for Obama moved this up a color)

Violet (86-100% Dem): 1 district - Washington DC

Some observations:

1) There aren't any Red States or even Orange States, the one Indigo state is highly suspect and the one Violet area has a governance pattern that has been basically messed up for decades. One party rule does that, and DC voted 93% Democratic this year.

2) We're a Green Country, with a high plurality of our states falling into a 14% voting difference in the middle. (If I shift things to put those two extra percents from the ends into the center then Green captures 28 states.) For all the Red/Blue talk as if it's a vast gulf in most cases it's really not.

3) It's not easy being Green. In order to make our Green-ness work we have to actually engage our neighbors who disagree with us. That's hard. it's much more comfortable to stick with the people we know are on our side in all arguments, or to fly under the radar rather than start an unpleasant discussion over coffee.

So my advice to you is to go Green this week and go actually talk to someone from the other party about politics. In person, in a polite, civil tone. You might be surprised, but even if you aren't you'll at least be a little better informed.

I'll have one more round of this in the next few days - what I'd like to see out of the Republican party's current internal discussion - and then I'll be off politics for a bit. Maybe.

I can stop any time I want.