Democrats and Republicans Aren’t Just Divided. They Live in Different Worlds.

[RINO Tom]

Pretty sure someone posts an article like this once a week.  These studies and stories are interesting, and they certainly contain a grain of truth.  However, they make the classic political nerd mistake of acting like "red areas" are full of Republicans and "blue areas" are full of Democrats, and then there are a few purple areas that are 50/50.  The reality is that tens of millions of Republicans and Democrats live in areas that don't vote in a way with which they agree.  There are plenty of factory workers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan (areas that swung to Trump) that have remained loyal to the Democrats, especially among minority workers in those states ... and yet they've probably heard some people in real life or on TV talk like the red avatars here who have sworn those areas off as nonredeemable.  Similarly, it's not like tens of millions of suburban Republicans disappeared magically one day when their counties and precincts went from 55% GOP to 55% Democratic; anyone with a basic understanding of statistics knows that a shift like that involves relatively few people changing their minds, and possibly just a very minor change in who's actually voting (i.e., even fewer people changing their minds).

None of this is to say that the era of Trump hasn't brought very significant shifts in our electorate; it obviously has.  But this whole "two worlds" crap is, indeed, overstated.  I live in downtown Chicago ... I could go walk outside right now and find a Republican within ten minutes if I were obnoxious and classless enough to ask strangers about that kind of thing.  The point is, it's easy to forget that there are VERY few places in the United States where nearly everyone votes for one party strictly because of where they live (keep in mind, a county or town that votes 75% for one party still has a very significant 25% that didn't).