Just a quick rant on one of my least favourite labels. I don't mean to offend anyone, and I know it's became a part of the lexicon, but I just want to make my peace...
Next time before you call a state a "red" state or a "blue" state, keep this in mind...
If you got 10 random people from every state in a room, all but five states and the District of Columbia would be statistically most likely likely to have a 6-4 or 5-5 alignment, and if I was in a crowd with 6 against 4 or even 7 against 3, I would hardly call that one-sided.
There are very few states that do not have at least a few counties, or at least areas, that have strikingly different politics than the state overall. So the idea that an entire state can be "red" or "blue" falls apart when you look down to a county level, and especially to town level and even further to the neighbourhood level.
Now I know there are major exceptions like D.C., but these are rare and generally targeted politically (San Francisco or Kansas bashing, anyone?) because they are rare. Even in a state like Utah, over 25% of the population voted Democrat in 2004. That is over one in four people - it may be a huge landslide, but it's still one out every four people, and a one-in-four event is hardly a rare one.
So, for those of you who assign labels like "red state" or "blue state" as if it was some sort of cultural standard (especially, for God's sake, a state like New Mexico or Wisconsin!), consider that even in a two-to-one landslide, that one-third of the population remains, and two-thirds does not a universal lifestyle make.
