I knew the Democrats did well in Michigan, but I didn’t realize until looking through this great New York Times slide show that not one single county in the entire state of Michigan voted more Republican in this election than in 2004.
Commenting on this trend to the left, Michigan GOP Chairman Saulius “Saul” Anuzis had the following to say:
…Our challenge going forward is to renew the faith of the American people in our party. We are the party that represents the best hopes of America. Unfortunately, some of our elected leaders broke faith with the American people, on so many of our Republican core issues, that Republicans lost the ability to appeal to middle class families. On issues of national security, spending, taxes, and values, too many Republicans have not kept their promise to America. But by returning to those fundamentals, we can once again be a majority party. It is more then just tactics and mechanics. It is about believing in and living your principles…
One wonders just how they’re going to pull that off… How does one evolve a party of fear into a “party that represents the best hopes of America”? Is it even possible?
[The figure pictured here, based on exit polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky, shows all the counties in the U.S. that voted more Republican in 2008.]
15 Comments
Saul Anuzis tried to keep Ron Paul, the only actual small government conservative Republican running, out of a debate. You’re part of the problem, Saul. Kill yourself.
Maybe next time the Republicans will nominate a conservative.
I certainly hope so. It would be nice if it were *republicans* rather than democrats who nominated the 2012 Republican Party candidate for President. After all, Senator McCain did not hide the fact that he counted on cross-voting democrats and independents in the various republican primaries to secure his nomination.
Maybe a new mascot would rally people to the cause, or a new tag line. Or they could, through plastic surgery, create a new Ronald Reagan!
“Hey America, remember how we made that contract with you, then broke it? Well, we’re really sorry, and this time we really really really really mean it. No foolin.”
It’s interesting that the areas that voted more republican here are the same areas that have the shortest lifespan, highest infant mortality and highest incidence of heart disease based on a map that I’m looking at right now.
Wanna share that map with the rest of the class, if it exists at all?
Hmm.. it’s in a book, but there’s this one from the CDC.
I bet if you were to stratify the maps by racial groups, it would look much like the NY Times map. I wish I could get my hands on this exit poll data. It would be fun to find out how correlated these are.
http://www.cdc.gov/gis/mg_heartdisease_stroke.htm
On the one hand, my doubts as to the maps’ existance stands corrected. On the other hand, I’m not quite as impressed with the correlation.
As a side note, folks in the western UP really need to lay off the pasties.
Check out that swath of red that streams from West Virginia to Oklahoma on both maps. While it’s not a perfect match, heart problems span a much wider area, it is true that these “more Republican” areas have some serious public health problems.
Maybe it’s all the stress of hating minorities and fighting terrorists.
Maybe they just don’t like people telling them not to eat crap.
I think someone should do a study to see the effects of eating crap on partisan leanings.
A tax funded study, of course.
No, really, what happened to Arkansas and Tennesse this year? Look especially at the sharp differentiations between south Arkansas and north Louisiana and between SE Ark. and NW Miss. I dunno what it means, but it kinda freaks me out anyway.
NW Mississippi is almost entirely black, unlike SE Arkansas, which is principally white.