Oklahoma in 2008

[Mechaman]

Interesting note on Oklahoma:



1976 Presidential Election

Note the cultural divide, it says everything you need to know about Oklahoma.  And really, quite a good example of earlier political times.  Note how Tulsa County, home of the second largest city in the state, is a Republican bastion that went 62% Ford in a year he barely won.  And then note how nearby Little Dixie is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Now let's go forward by 36 years:



You can be forgiven for thinking that Tulsa County looks less blue on this map, as every county around it has gotten more Republican.  Many of these counties, mind, were reliable Carter counties.  Tulsa, meanwhile, is only a point or so more GOP in 2012 than it was thirty six years earlier. However, it's Republican areas and it's Democratic areas have changed dramatically, much like other urban areas.

Reagan, and then later Dubya, pretty much united these two different cultural groups off of a political platform that appealed to them both.  You go to Broken Bow you'll hear people mouthing off about "godless" Democrats while in Broken Arrow you'll hear people ranting and raving about the "socialist communist anti-business" state.

OK politics is actually quite fascinating when you break it down.