This is a pictorial posting. Look at the pictures below! The U.S. election wasn´t really about the economy or terrorism or tax cuts for the working class versus wealthy investors, about health care for everyone or for those with employers that pay. Sure, it was about those things too. But it was more about the following. What kind of world makes you excited? In what kind of world do you want to live? What makes you tick?
My personal method to find out what it was all about is to look at the places that gave the strongest support to the respective candidates. What kind of people and places did really want McCain & Palin? And what kind of people and places did really want Obama & Biden?
I used the presidential election map in New York Times, broken down to county level. I have not studied every detail but I believe I have identified the areas with the heaviest support for each candidate.
I focus on regions and pick a picture of a typical place in each region. Where do you want to live and what do you feel for other people living there? That's the question.
The photos below are deep-linked. For attribution and license, click on photo. Then you will also find more information about the specific photo and place:
Northern Alabama and Georgia. Blount County Alabama, 84.2 % McCain:
Southern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Northern Florida - old Ku Klux Klan strongholds went for McCain. George County, Mississippi, 82.1 % McCain:
Southwestern Kentucky and Tennessee just love McCain. Jackson County, Kentucky, 84.4 % McCain:
The prairies of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and The Dakotas are conducive to great feelings for McCain. 75-80 % support is common. In areas where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (= the Mormons) dominate support is extra strong. Madison County, Idaho, 85.2 % McCain:
About 75 % of the people in the whole Bay Area, with Silicon Valley and world-leading universities like Stanford och Berkeley support Obama. San Francisco County, California, 84.7 % Obama:
The Boston area is big on Obama. 77.5 % in Suffolk County (= Boston). Neighboring city Cambridge hosts two of the world's greatest universities and knowledge producers, Harvard and MIT. Cambridge, Massachusetts 87.1 % Obama:
Seattle, Washington, lends great support for Obama in the northeast. It is even stronger in Portland, Oregon. Multnomah County, Oregon, 77.7 % Obama:
His home city of Chicago of course supports Obama. But also industrial cities in "the rust belt" as Detroit. Wayne County, 74.2 % Obama:
The most exciting and diverse place on earth, New York, supports Obama like almost no other city. New York County (= Manhattan), New York, 85.1 % Obama:
I once met a guy from rural Texas in New York. He had moved in order to study to become a Medical Doctor. His whole family and circle of "friends" had told him that they would never, ever visit him. NEVER! I was shocked, since New York was the greatest place on earth to me. "Yes, to you", he said. "But for a big part of America it represents hell. To them it is pure decadence and filth and immorality. They love guns as much as they hate minds.". Personally I voted for the Pirate Party in the latest Swedish election for parliament. Their view of the digital society revolves around openness and freedom of communications. Tolerance and co-existence. Almost all other parties see the digital networked society as a threat. A threat to the state. A threat to culture. A threat to children. A threat to the powers that are used to be in command. That's why they want insularity and control (and more power to the copyright industries instead of e.g. discussing adaption of copyright laws to internet society). The gun instead of the mind. By the way, I had missed that the great mind of Vint Cerf had actually just come out and endorsed Obama when we met at that luncheon here in Sweden. I guess he also prefers minds to guns.
The World of McCain
His heaviest support comes from the Texas panhandle (where alcohol is banned) and neighboring counties in Oklahoma (which was, by the way, the only state where all counties were won by McCain) and north into Kansas. Roberts County, Texas, 92.1 % McCain:
Northern Alabama and Georgia. Blount County Alabama, 84.2 % McCain:
Southern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Northern Florida - old Ku Klux Klan strongholds went for McCain. George County, Mississippi, 82.1 % McCain:
Southwestern Kentucky and Tennessee just love McCain. Jackson County, Kentucky, 84.4 % McCain:
The prairies of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and The Dakotas are conducive to great feelings for McCain. 75-80 % support is common. In areas where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (= the Mormons) dominate support is extra strong. Madison County, Idaho, 85.2 % McCain:
The World of Obama
Support in and around the capital is strong. Washington is also a very african-american city. Washington DC, 92.9 % Obama:
About 75 % of the people in the whole Bay Area, with Silicon Valley and world-leading universities like Stanford och Berkeley support Obama. San Francisco County, California, 84.7 % Obama:
The Boston area is big on Obama. 77.5 % in Suffolk County (= Boston). Neighboring city Cambridge hosts two of the world's greatest universities and knowledge producers, Harvard and MIT. Cambridge, Massachusetts 87.1 % Obama:
Seattle, Washington, lends great support for Obama in the northeast. It is even stronger in Portland, Oregon. Multnomah County, Oregon, 77.7 % Obama:
His home city of Chicago of course supports Obama. But also industrial cities in "the rust belt" as Detroit. Wayne County, 74.2 % Obama:
The most exciting and diverse place on earth, New York, supports Obama like almost no other city. New York County (= Manhattan), New York, 85.1 % Obama:
I once met a guy from rural Texas in New York. He had moved in order to study to become a Medical Doctor. His whole family and circle of "friends" had told him that they would never, ever visit him. NEVER! I was shocked, since New York was the greatest place on earth to me. "Yes, to you", he said. "But for a big part of America it represents hell. To them it is pure decadence and filth and immorality. They love guns as much as they hate minds.". Personally I voted for the Pirate Party in the latest Swedish election for parliament. Their view of the digital society revolves around openness and freedom of communications. Tolerance and co-existence. Almost all other parties see the digital networked society as a threat. A threat to the state. A threat to culture. A threat to children. A threat to the powers that are used to be in command. That's why they want insularity and control (and more power to the copyright industries instead of e.g. discussing adaption of copyright laws to internet society). The gun instead of the mind. By the way, I had missed that the great mind of Vint Cerf had actually just come out and endorsed Obama when we met at that luncheon here in Sweden. I guess he also prefers minds to guns.
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