In Defense of...Cecil Rhodes?!

Statistics Are Interesting!

The Wall Street Journal 2012 Election Map

This is a brilliant map, showing each county (or county-equivalent state subdivision, seemingly aside from those in Alaska and Hawaii).  You can see that the deeper the blue, the more skewed towards Obama, and the deeper the read, the more skewed towards Romney the counties are.

Although there are Red States and Blue States, it easy to see that things aren't so simple as that.  Maps like these tell us that it's mostly urban areas (as well as rural areas with large minority populations) that go for Democrats, and rural areas that go for Republicans.

Even looking at New York, California, Washington, and Oregon (among others) you can see that lots of rural counties went Red.  It was the same in recent past elections.

Nevada is a Blue state, yet the only Blue areas of the state are Las Vegas and Reno.  All other counties are Red.  Yet the population distribution is such that just those cities can stand up to the rest of the state.

Even in many "Red" states, the major cities are Blue.  For example, in North Carolina (which switched from Blue to Red this election), Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, and Asheville were all Blue...some being quite deep blue.  There were many other Blue counties, too, but they were not enough to keep the whole state Blue.

In Indiana, the only previously Blue state which also switched, Indianapolis was deep blue, and Gary (a suburb of Chicago), Michigan City, and South Bend (home of the University of Notre Dame) were also blue.

Even in Texas (a solid Red state), Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio went blue, while Houston was pale Red (yet had been Blue in 2008).

As for race, it's pretty interesting.

In Mississippi, 59% of people are white, and Romney got 55% of the total vote.  My guess is that the vast majority of white people there voted for Romney.

However, in Vermont (a totally "Blue" state), 94% of the population is made up of "non-Hispanic whites" (with blacks accounting for 1%), while 67% of the total population voted for Obama.  Obviously a large majority of whites voted for Obama in Vermont.

It just goes to show you that things are complex...and I'm glad they are.  It's more interesting.  And those progressives who are from Red states but live in Blue counties can have some pride that at least their subdivision voted the right way!