This blog post from Digby's place shows an electoral map that is far more accurate than the usual hard Red/Blue map we constantly see presented in major corporate media. It shows where votes of a particular number actually are, and where they are not. It still suffers from the Red/Blue dichotomy, where it ignores the fact that maybe in various rural white towns, there are still 30-40% of people who vote for Bernie or Biden, and not Trump or Reagan. But, still, the map at Digby's place, from XKCD, a sharp and often incisive comics web site, is a strong step in the proper analytical direction.
The best summary is also later in the Digby's blogger post, where Barry Ritholtz, a Bloomberg commentator, says:
There are more Trump voters in CA than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than NY, more Trump voters in NY than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Mass, more Trump voters in Mass than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.
This is why the argument about rural/city and small population state/big population state is, frankly, bullshit. I have long been a proponent of economically helping mid western and southern states, and small rural areas, for decades. I opposed the trade deals based in large part on that anti-trade deal position. I have often been willing to limit my otherwise suburban tendencies about guns--in fact, in the 1990s, I was very much a proponent of a very pro-gun legislative position, much like Bernie Sanders was at that time. My take on gun regulation is not inconsistent with the majority of gun owners. I am more culturally "left" about abortion rights than rural area residents, I admit, but my argument begins there with this: Is this really your priority over living outside the womb human beings, and if so, why? For me, that is as effective way to limit one-issue voting on that cultural battleground. However, again, on the majority of issues, I can easily stand with those who live in rural areas as much as suburban or urban ones--depending upon the persons living there, as, again, 30-40% of rural voters are often progressives to start with, and from there, can get to the next 20-30% of voters there.
Right now, though, I am very depressed at the continuing decline in analytical thinking among adults, and the continuing rise of Team D/Team R party line thinking. I remain more convinced than ever that our only political hope is young people doing #DemExit and joining The People's Party. But, the National Popular Vote initiative needs to be extended if we are to avoid future elections where a candidate, such as Biden, can win the popular vote by 5%, with 51.38% of that vote, and still end up with the same Electoral College votes (306) as Trump in 2016, when Trump won 46.1% of the popular vote.
