Is anyone here tired of the "blue state/red state" hype?

[angus]

For me, it's not the descriptor, but the implication. The media needs to realize that blue state/red state is a voting pattern, not a lifestyle.

that's how I read it as well.  I liked Wal-Mart stocks every bit as much when I lived in Massachusetts as I did when I lived in California, but since I didn't want to sit on a subway for an hour just for a pair of bicycle gloves, I didn't go there very often during that period.  Also, there was a great bicycle shop just down the block anyway.  And it's not as though I stop drinking coca-cola and start drinking pepsi when I drive from Columbus to New York.  My support for gay rights and public transit doesn't suddenly change when I move to a different county.  That sort of thing.

But I think it's the gross oversimplification (not to mention the serious confusion, since it wasn't until 2000 when FOX news channel popularized the color scheme red=gore, blue=bush; thankfully Dave hasn't jumped on that bandwagon), and the rejection of a-la-carte tastes and concerns that mostly offends the intellect.  The description implies that all democrats are "white wine swilling baby killers" and all republicans are hell bent on middle east domination and spend their weekends at stock car races.  Or something like that. 

Anyway, yes, I hardly can watch an episode of Hardball or Hannity & Colmes without hearing that red/blue tripe.  But then that really says something more about my poor taste in programming than it does about the hype, doesn't it?  However, when respectable outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal pick up that lingo, you know it's time to call them on it.  On the other hand, the press' job is simple:  to make money, either by selling ad space or by selling subscriptions.  As long as the red/blue hype sells, it will continue.

[Cashcow]

JSUT KEP ME AWWAY FROM THE LIBERL ELITE

[FerrisBueller86]

I dont have a problem with most states. But the northeast is still a horrible place even before this Bush/Kerry/Bush/Gore nonsense started up. The people up in those upper reaches of hell think that they are better then everyone else, especially southerners. I love when people from New England rail on southerners about racism when a vast majority of those in states such as NH, VT and ME have probably never even met a black person.

Oh, come on!  Everyone knows that Massachusetts is a corrupt and lawless place!  Heterosexuals are being bumped off by gay marriage and everyone has wild, orgasmic sex in the middle of the street!

[Keystone Phil]

I seperate America into- Voted for Hoover, Voted for Smith!

Glad to hear it's not "Voted for Hoover, voted for FDR", because then there would be an awful lot of states you would hate.

He'd love PA though! 

[Gabu]

I seperate America into- Voted for Hoover, Voted for Smith!

Glad to hear it's not "Voted for Hoover, voted for FDR", because then there would be an awful lot of states you would hate.

He'd love PA though! 

But hate Iowa, in which FDR won all but six counties.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

I still want a national precinct map so we can figure out blue/red precincts and have much more targeted hate and stereotypes

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Lot's of maps to look at

Especially this one

[Storebought]

Lot's of maps to look at

Especially this one

In older Southern cities, rich and poor neighborhoods abut each other, often only separated by a single street. It's amazing how wide the income disparities are.

In Baton Rouge, my old and tired inner-city neighborhood's average income is 25,000 (not high, but definitely higher than the ghettoes of Scotlandville). It's racially mixed--blacks live on one side of EBRP HS; whites on the other side.

Cross LA-73, a four-lane street, to enter the mostly, but not entirely, white "Garden District", and the income is 47,000. Demographically, it's changing from an old people's retirement community to a suburb of LSU kids. It is charming neighborhood, full of 1920s and 1930s homes and site of Baton Rouge's only Christian Science "church."

About a quarter of a mile away still, the income jumps to 70,000...of course, that fact was long obvious to me. That neighborhood is entirely white and home to St Joseph's Academy, an all girls' Catholic school. Not to mention, a cop pulled me over when I was riding my new bike through it on my 11th birthday. Ahh, good times...

The most interesting development is occuring just a mile south of LSU. It has become Baton Rouge's version of Marin County--tremendously rich people building mansions and hottubs along the only "cliffside" in the entire parish.

[Josh/Devilman88]

why not say the states name that it was given...

[patrick1]

I'm SO tired of all this crap.  Because of my political leanings, I'm supposed to consider so many places to be enemy territory. 

I agree with you. I am also sick of the northeast-elitist crap I always hear on the internet and cable TV. I've lived in the northeast all my life, and I don't know any elitist. The people in my state (New Hampshire) are all pretty much middle class and very down to earth.

Well you llive in NH^^  I think most conservative people (myself included) have more of a problem with the supposed cultural "elite" in NYC and Boston.

[MHS2002]

I separate states into those dominated by religious and the enlightened states not dominated by religious.

[Josh/Devilman88]

I separate states into those dominated by religious and the enlightened states not dominated by religious.

Give an example of that

[MHS2002]

I separate states into those dominated by religious and the enlightened states not dominated by religious.

Give an example of that

It's a joke. Read a few of opebo's posts and you'll understand.

[Beet]

Why did the "hype" begin anyway? I'm willing to wager for one reason and one reason only: cable television.