A Blue State

First, thanks to M.B, for the title of this post.

It's not without some incredible feelings of awe that the Democrats lost the election in large part because of people who believe that their particular kind of morality is key to the future of the country. The recent post by Victor (see end of posting) is important because it outlines what liberals and social democrats generally have been accused of for ages: government is built to help people make decisions about their utterly complex lives. In the case of this election, it seems that a slim majority of voters would like the government to be involved in a different set of relationships: not social welfare, poverty, old age, health and wellbeing, or education but rather marriage, sexuality, and science.

I want to change the corner slightly and point out some very interesting data points that have been published by the New York Times a few days ago. They speak to the reality of a very confused electorate, an empassioned and bitter set of folks that seem to think government is somehow both the problem and the solution, and a population filled with minorities that are not getting, somehow, represented in government. Here:

• 54% of voters over 60 (24% of total voters) voted for Bush
• 58% of white voters (77% of total voters) voted for Bush
• 88% of black voters (11% of total voters) voted for Kerry
• 74% of Jewish voters (3% of total voters) voted for Kerry
• 22% of voters felt that moral values were the issues that "mattered most" to them - these were the folks that won Mr. Bush II the election as 80% of them voted for him

P.S. The actual article (up for a few more days) is here but the superbly well-designed chart is hosted here.

Posted by Andrew at November 5, 2004 2:29 PM