Islands of blue in a sea of red...

[MrScorpio]

Ladies and gentleman… This is a map of Democrats winning an election.



ONLY a presidential election, one in which we out voted the Republicans by roughly 9 1/2 million votes. However, if you're trying to have Democratic control of Congress with a map that looks like this, you're pretty much fucked.

This tells us two things… There's more of us than there are of them and we're all bunched up together in tightly constructed clusters, while they're all spread out like a motherfucker.

This shouldn't be any new to any of us. It's pretty obvious what the problems are and what the solutions are.

- Gerrymandering: While Republicans control state houses, where going to have gerrymandering. However, redistricting only happens after a ten year period, i.e., post census.

I suggest that Democrats and liberals start moving into the red areas of the country. I'm not suggesting that people move en masse into Idaho. Fuck that noise. However, by these blue area, there are fringes of red which may be almost indistinguishable to the blue areas right next to them.

I live in such an area myself. When I moved back into a new place a couple of years ago, I could have easily moved out of the 10th Congressional District with a Republican congress critter, into the 9th which is safely Democratic. But I decided to stay here. It takes me less that 10 minutes to walk from one district to the next, so culturally, socially and just about every single measure, there really is no difference between the two where I am.

I live in a relatively diverse area; people here vote locally for Democrats, there are union supporters here and just about everyone hates Republicans. But due to the structure of this district, the vast majority of voters are just north of here and are comprised of mostly white, Republican voting ignoramuses.

I can't see any other way to solve this problem than to take what they have away from them, their overwhelming majority in the widest areas of the country.

Yes, I know that I'm suggesting a lot. But, just a slight demographic shift could mean a lot until the next round of reapportionment. If we're going to get back control of Congress, a shitload of us are just going to have to move out of our comfort zones and physically invade Red America.

Either we do this, or we concede most of the land mass to those assholes.

[GeorgeGist]

1. A house divided.

[riverwalker]

2. not one blue county in Oklahoma

man

[LeftinOH]

3. Those blue "islands" account for the majority of US population,

almost all of the big cities & most of the top universities.

[MrScorpio]

4. I'm kicking this because I want all of you to take a look at what's happening here

Especially in light of the fact that several Republican controlled states that vote blue in General elections are planning to gerrymander the vast majority of democrats in those states.

If you want defeat them, you should consider defeating the boundaries that they've drawn. There are more of us than there are of them, so it is feasible.

[Brigid]

5. Most of that sea of red probably has poor job prospects.

And the coasts are insanely expensive. I'll stay here where I at least have a fighting chance, economically speaking.