Purple States

Here's something to maybe soften the blow of all the red state/blue state talk of late:

(thanks to: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/)

This is a map of the US showing percentages of democratic and republican votes by county. The disturbing elephantitis of some areas and regretful shrinking of others is due to the fact that each county's representation on the map has had it's size modified based on population. Check out LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, NYC, and Fort Lauderdale. No real mystery where the democrats are living. It would also appear that there is basically nobody living between Idaho and New Mexico.

The voter split is represented by the color placement from blue to red. This happens to leave much of the country purple. Truth be told it also appears to me that there are more bluer than blue sections of the map than there are redder than red - but its been a long time since I painted a color wheel. In any case it is much preferable to the sea of red we've been seeing on the television coverage since the election.

So, maybe something for many of us to feel better about. Moreover, maybe something for the pundits and talking heads to think about when they're talking about the "mandate" that W got in this past election.