Polarization
The division between red states and blue states has triggered a pronounced introspection among blue staters and red staters. Feelings of cultural and political polarization, which have gained increased media attention since the 2004 election, have led to increased mutual feelings of alienation and enmity. These attitudes have led to the often jocular suggestion that a red state-blue state secession is in order. The Jesusland map is one such joke, a satirical map that redraws the U.S.-Canada border to reflect this sociopolitical schism.
The polarization has been present for only two close elections (2000 and 2004). In the 1996 election, 31 U.S. states were "blue" and 19 "red" (though at the time the colors were not used consistently by the major networks). One thing that has been more consistent over this period is that the average "blue" state has a greater number of people and electoral votes than does the average "red" state. (When George W. Bush won 31 states in 2004, he gathered 286 electoral votes — an average of 9 electoral votes for each state won. When Bill Clinton won 31 states in 1996, he tallied 379 electoral votes — an average of 12 electoral votes per state carried.)
Viewing the nation as divided into two camps requires ignoring the largest single group of Americans: those who don't vote. In the 2000 election only about 54 percent of eligible voters were motivated enough to vote. In 2004, after the loudest most-expensive get-out-the-vote campaigns by both ideological camps, the percentage who voted rose only a few points. Hence 2004 set an all-time national record with more than 80 million eligible voters taking a pass, far more than voted for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.
In fact no Republican or Democratic nominee has attracted as much as 30 percent of eligible voters since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Close to half of all Americans, it appears, are neither "red" nor "blue" -- at least not strongly enough to vote either way.
Implications for the future of the United States
The United States today is more polarized than it has been since the Vietnam Era, when a foreign entanglement divided families and pitted the youth against the established generation. Today's conflict, however, is far different in that it encompasses not just a single war but a dispute over two wholly different ideological systems and ways of life.
During the Vietnam War, debate focused centrally around whether or not the United States ought to have been involved. The debate today concerns the direction of American foreign and domestic policy, the role of religion in the state, the role of the state in the economy, and, essentially, the entire meaning of the U.S. as a nation.
After these pondering this,
please continue on ....
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be "murdered and thrown into the Boston Harbor."
Kevin's response...
Rupert Murdoch
Bull-Goose Loonie & Fascist Billionaire Extraordinaire
Fox News
Dear Mr. Murdoch,
It has come to my attention that one of your announcers, Bill O’Reilly, has stated on national television that he would like to see me murdered and thrown into Boston Harbor.
Since I get so many email death threats I can’t keep track of them (among the 10% of my 9/11-related emails that are negative) this is a pretty inflammatory thing to say. If anything were to happen to me, Fox News would find itself facing the mother of all lawsuits, and my family might very well end up in control of the Murdoch fortune. You may wish to consider urging your friends in the White House to offer me Secret Service protection. Please assign me the guy who said “we’re out of here” to Bush when the second plane hit the building at 9:04 – not the higher-up who overruled him and kept Bush reading about pet goats while our nation was allegedly under surprise attack.
The Secret Service agent who said “we’re out of here” before being overruled was honest. That’s the guy I want protecting my life.
Also, you might want to tell O’Reilly that HE'S the one who should worry about ending up in Boston Harbor. 9/11 was an act of high treason and mass murder, and media figures complicit in the cover-up will be viewed, a few years hence, the way we now view Dr. Goebbels.
The last time a bunch of empire-builders tried to trample on our rights, we had a little uprising called the American Revolution. It’s time for another one. Let’s kick it off with another Boston Tea
Party—a little red-white-and-blue version of V-for-Vendetta and throw the whole Fox News crew, along with the traitors in this administration, straight into Boston Harbor.
Sincerely,
Kevin Barrett
Lecturer
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Edgewood College of Madison
