Friday, November 05, 2004
time lapse (sort of) video of presidential results by county since 1960
u.s. presidential election results by county, 1960 - 2004
red - democrat blue - republican other - other
not sure what can be gleaned from this, but i was curious about the geographical progresssion of voting results by party over time. too bad the county maps stopped at 1960, but that site has all the by-state maps, and there's one page there that shows them all in one place. interesting look at this country's history.
a bothersome item is that although the party name may have stayed the same, there have been definite shifts in party policies over the years, and that needs accounting for as well. it's not so visible here, but a longer term view shows the shift in republican / democratic appeal. and it's interesting to pick out the wars, expansion and changes in social policy effects as well. not much of that appears in the last 44 years.
one thing that was pretty clear, however, is how volatile this nation really is, and by extension, the world at large. hard to discern any overall trends; what can you see ?