North vs South

[Skittles]

I really like this WAPO comment

[jimfields33]

1. The south is gaining population.

That’s probably the only win. Weather to maybe.

[raccoon]

2. I sincerely hope many of those moving to the South are Democrats/liberals.

[jimfields33]

3. It's a crapshoot

Clearly North Carolina and Georgia yes. Florida and Texas not yet.

[Celerity]

33. NC and GA going perma blue would be a game changer for POTUS

as long as we hold MI (or PA instead of MI) and VA (or, of course, as VA is the smallest of the 3 EV-wise, win MI and PA and lose VA) (I am perma bluing CO and MN for this exercise and in reality)

we can lose ALL of following states and still win


FL
TX
AZ
NV (or NH, not both unless we both ME-2 and NE-2, see below)
WI
PA (or lose MI IF we win PA, and then we could even lose BOTH NV and NH and still win)
OH
MO
IA
IN
KS
ME-2nd District
NE-2nd District




or (win PA, lose MI and lose BOTH NV and NH, plus still lose ME-2 and NE-2)



and finally, IF we win both NE-2 and ME-2 (ME-2 is the harder atm), we can also lose BOTH NH and NV and still win, even winning MI and losing PA) This scenario would make Nebraska FREAK out, as the Rethugs have been trying for years to stop the split vote, coming within only 1 vote once. IF NE stops splitting Maine HAS to do so too, or it may fuck us in some scenarios.

[Celerity]

34. lastly, IF we also perma blue AZ and NV, (and hold VA) we can lose BOTH PA AND MI as well

so lose ALL of the following

FL
TX
NH
WI
PA
MI
MO
IA
IN
KS
ME-2nd District
NE-2nd District

and still win



also IF we win BOTH NE-2 and ME-1 (we need both as we lose a 269-269 tie due to the House delegations (1 vote per state, 26 needed to won) being in favour of the Rethugs), we can flip NV for NH, so we win NH but lose NV and also still win





I would like to see the 2 split states undo their split EV votes

and also work like hell to make this map below the MINIMUM we ever get




we can expand our winning margin from that map by winning the other states truly up for grabs (all states in Blue on that map are perma Blue in my wish scenario) still, ie MI, PA, WI, and perhaps FL (the hardest to win of those 4 going forward)

so say (still saying we lose FL, but win WI, MI, PA)

this (Majority Sane USA)

[jimfields33]

35. That's really cool and quite frankly, I think the last map is the most likely.

I really don’t think they have the candidates or the voters to ever win the presidency again. I do believe they’ll win the house from time to time and may be the senate on a rarer time, but I think their days are numbered as far as winning.

[Celerity]

37. unfortunately, there is a decent shot we lose the Senate in 2024, the map is horrid for us

I will not go into the 5 far less likely 'potentially in play' states, as even if worst case scenarios happen in any, the odds we lose are very, very low

but

we do have these 10 to defend, and little chance to flip any Rethugs (they only defend 10 TOTAL, versus our 23, all 10 of theirs are in deep red (9) or getting to deep red (FL) states)

the following 6 are not 'safe' seats

WV (especially if Justice runs, and Manchin may run for Governor if that happens, but this is a struggle no matter what)
MT (Tester is the only Dem who can win there, but MT is now so Red, love Tester, so hope he wins)
OH (Brown (close to my favourite Senator) is the only Dem who can win there, but OH is now so Red)
NV (especially if Sandoval, who has high approval ratings, runs, a MAGAt loon would be easier to beat)
AZ (could be all sorts of chaos due to Sinema, and if Ducey runs it will be even harder)
WI (most likely Dem win of these 6, Baldwin is a strong Senator, but WI just re-elected an open traitor and Russian stooge in Ron Johnson, so I hesitate to put this in the next category)


then we have the 4 substantially more likely Dem wins, but still not 100% locks, especially if non MAGAt Rethugs run

MI
MN
PA
VA

I feel good about those 4, all are very strong incumbents, I just cannot say they are 100% in the bag

[Major Nikon]

4. I think today it's really more about urban vs rural

Almost without exception, cities above a certain size are blue while areas with low population densities are almost without exception red. In the South I don’t hear people going off against the North like it once was. The rubes in Texas hate the people in Dallas just as much as NYC.

[Wounded Bear]

5. That's been brewing for years and years...

The rural folks love to complain that "city dwellers don't understand" them and whine about city folks making laws they can't live with.

The problem is that the laws that the country folk pass don't work in cities either. It works both ways. Gun laws come to mind. "Open carry" and "permitless concealed carry" probably aren't so bad out in the bush and on the farm, but in your local Starbucks in downtown Seattle, it's a bit out of place and tends to make people nervous.

Taxes as well. City folk pay more taxes. They know they do and they live with it because roads that carry millions of vehicles per day require more maintenance than your local two lane road that carries maybe 10-20. In fact, city folk tend to pay taxes that pay for the country roads as well. Blue areas finance red areas all over the country. It's like the norm, not the exception. Blue states by and large carry red states. It's how it works and we live with it and generally don't complain about it.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. " it's a bit out of place "

Understatement of the YEAR. If I see a open carry in an establishment, I will walk out after telling management why. I live in south Alabama, one of the reddest places on earth, and yet I have never seen an open carry in my city. Go figure.

[lambchopp59]

17. Concur.

I'm presently contracted in rural Arizona. The cadillac cowboys packing bilateral pistols in WalMart always give me pause and give them wide berth. It makes me nervous as hell one will actually dispense "cowboy justice" in a crowded place. I've also seen the depths of delusion these idiots hold:
Yet another job a couple years back in a very red California county, there actually was a headline article in the local paper I may even have stored away somewhere just for amusement. It covered a local meeting of local militia groups planning session for their response if an "Antifa" invasion occurs.
Fox Noise has these yokels convinced of the most delusional shit imaginable.

[Farmer-Rick]

19. Really? I live in rural TN and I've seen 5 men with guns in the last year

In stores and fairs. That I noticed. Sometimes they are not so obvious. All of them were hip holsters.

But here in TN it seems open carry makes a lot of men want to flash them. You can bring them to church and bars here. Everywhere you go.

When I see a guy with a gun on their hip, I make sure I know where exits and cover are available. I always expect them to be crazy. A lot of times when an open carry idiot shows up at a store, you are in the middle of a transaction and can't immediately walk out but you can identify exits and cover.

[former9thward]

31. Why people get weirded out about open carry I never understand.

Half the people you see may be concealed carrying. If its guns that bother you, why aren't you bothered by the guns you don't see?

[Genki Hikari]

40. Who said we didn't get weirded out about

concealed carry?

You're the one assuming that we don't.

[former9thward]

41. The poster I replied to said they walk out of places if they see open carry.

Why would they go into ANY place since a certain percentage are going to be concealed carrying? Are they just pretending there are not guns there if they don't see them?

[Major Nikon]

15. Carrying guns in public should make people nervous everywhere

People losing their shit isn’t a big city phenomenon. It happens everywhere and when someone has instant access to a gun is where things go horribly wrong. The only difference is in less densely populated areas you hear about it more simply because there’s more people.

[Golfnbrew]

9. Rural is rural

Indeed, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, and much of California is very red. It is the large cities full of sensible people that carry the state.

I don't expect rural to ever turn blue, I just hope Southern cities can grow enough to carry their states one day.

[AllaN01Bear]

13. i live in tuolumne county. tc has been red since 1906.

however, when obama/biden and biden/harris was elected there were maps showing huge streaks of blue mingled with the red . same w the centeral valley.

[Major Nikon]

14. The tipping point will always be the suburbs

The biggest problem the GOP has right now is they aren’t going to win back the suburbs with their small minded bullshit and it’s going to hurt them even more in 2024.

[Wounded Bear]

21. Your keyboard to god's monitor...nt

[Skittles]

28. yup

the GOP tactic to inducer fear of immigrants is ridiculous to people who work with immigrants and live in diverse neighborhoods

[hatrack]

16. "Evil City" vs. "Virtuous Countryside" has been a thing since Jefferson was president . . .

Same old shit, but now with social media and way more guns/stupid.

[lambchopp59]

18. and Fox Noise elevating the paranoia levels to full on crazy.

[Skittles]

26. true

I encountered that anti-city sentiment in southern Illinois.....

[Tickle]

6. according to "The HIll" blue states are bailing our red states

Those arguing that “blue states” are the ones bailing out “red states” point to the federal “balance of payment” ratios, or federal tax dollars collected compared to federal money received, on a state-by-state basis. The states with lowest balance of payment ratios (collecting more federal taxes than they receive in federal funds) are Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York. The states with the highest balance of payments (receiving more federal funds than they collect in federal taxes) are Kentucky, New Mexico, Mississippi and West Virginia. Therefore, “blue states” are bailing out “red states” — or so they say.

[former9thward]

30. New Mexico is a blue state.

[Tickle]

32. What would life be like

if there wasn't the acceptation to the rule

Peace

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Good catch! . . . nt

[3Hotdogs]

8. Some of 'em, ya gotta feel sorry. Like the idiot who rescued thekids in the basement of Comet Pizza.

[Pepsidog]

10. As a kid born in NJ in early 60's I would often tease my grandmother who was born in SC and moved to

NJ, that the Yankees kicked the Confederates' ass in the Civil War. I was just a kid but she would get hopping mad. She was a real Southerner. I was a young kid and didn't understand why she got so upset. She and my Grandfather both had large families with 9 siblings. Although they spent most of their adult life in NJ, they made sure we buried them in South Carolina. As I got older, I understood that they never stopped fighting the Civil War in their minds. I went to college in Fla. and law school in Tx and really understood how they felt about Northerners. Driving around with NJ license plates made me a target for cops, especially in Tx, not as much in Fla.

[wnylib]

22. Back in the mid 1960s when I was a teen,

my parents, sister, and I visited my brother in SC where he was stationed in the Navy. We drove there on a family road trip from northwestern PA so that we could see the sights along the way.

There's rural poverty in the North, but it seemed like it was more prevalent as we got farther South. Maybe it's just that you notice other places more than your own area.

We saw a billboard ad for a local bread that made us laugh. It said, "So good that even Yankees like it."

[Pepsidog]

23. That's funny. The South has so romanticized their past that it has blinded them to the truth. I'm

ashamed to admit that I never thought much about the traitorous South until recently. I guess it was the way history was taught in schools and portrayals of outnumbered Confederate armies taking it to the Union Army that had leadership issues until Grant came along. Even award-winning documentaries like Ken Burns didn't portray the South's succession movement and its leaders as the traitors they were. I'm happy that the story has been flipped and confederate statues are being torn down. And you are correct, while poverty exists all over America, many Southern states rank lowest in almost every category that matters ie, health, education, and infant mortality. As I see many lifelong NJ residents retire and flee to the South for lower taxes I hope the influx of Yankees can turn some of these states blue.

[wnylib]

24. I remember seeing one scene that was like

a cartoon stereotype of the rural South or Appalachia. It was in NC. There was an unpainted, ramshackle house with a couple women on the porch smoking pipes. In front of the house was a bunch of half dressed kids playing in the dirt (no lawn).

We had taken a wrong turn somewhere and were in the middle of nowhere. My father stopped the car to ask directions and a couple men came out of the house carrying shotguns. My father told us to stay put while he slowly walked toward the house calling out, "Hey there. How are ya? My family needs directions. Can you help us?" The men lowered their guns and talked to him a few minutes about how to get back to the main highway and then we left.

[Pepsidog]

25. Different culture for sure. It's a shame they keep electing the same people who do nothing for them

[jimfields33]

36. They need to keep taxes as they are in the south.

We must have affordable places to live. The rest of the politics can become progressive but taxes need to stay affordable.

[plimsoll]

12. And if the world isn't about to crash,

They can fix that!
As for everyone being out to get them. A little more projection?

[LaMouffette]

20. I feel bad for them, too, considering that people who scoff at Covid and refuse the vaccine are so

much more likely to die from it.

Alex Wagner had a really sobering segment about Republicans having a much higher excess-death rate than Democrats:

When will Republican voters finally realize that Republican politicians like DeSantis literally do not care if they die?

[myohmy2]

27. when I...

...find myself getting aggravated with the 'South' I pause and think how rough it must be for all the good Progressives down there that live among and cope daily with MAGAts...

...then I don't feel so aggravated...

[Kennah]

29. Also City folk versus Cuntry folk

I hear that shit in Washington all the time. Run their fucking mouths about the damned City folk. I sarcastically say give Eastern Washington (which is very Red) to Canada, and kick in a few million, someone I know who rants about City folk loses her shit. Perfectly fine for her to demean others, sincerely demean, but I don't get to crack wise.

[dalton99a]

38. Notice how Texans practically shove their state flag in your face

whereas Californians and Illinoisans don't

There is a huge inferiority complex

[ITAL]

39. I think

That particular example has more to do with their ten year experiment in being their own nation before the United States took her in. Even the State Capitol Building rotunda has the six seals for the nations that ruled the area now known as Texas, but the one for Texan Independence is the center and the other five are just points of the star.

?1453143330

[Genki Hikari]

42. Yeah, that plays a part, but another reason

It's so popular with its residents is for a reason most of them probably haven't realized or considered:

Much as it pains me to admit it, that flag has a brilliant design. I'm not saying it's the most beautiful flag, but it does all the right things that a "logo" needs to do to be effective. And it IS effective, probably the most effective design of any state flag.

Think about it:



*The design is simple and straightforward, but not so much that it's pedestrian or boring, unlike this flag:



*The design is crisp and clear, not busy at all, or hard to make out the details, unlike this flag:



*And, most of all, the design isn't archaic-looking or inexplicable without a long explanation, unlike this flag:



*Instead, the TX flag has a modern look that directly ties it to the state's own tagline: The Lone Star State. How's that for a simple-but-effective message?

Whoever designed that flag (Texans help me out here) hit every single thing you want to see in a great logo. Companies pay MILLIONS to come up with such a simple but effective representation of their brand. They know the power that a great logo can have to make people not only identify the brand, right off, but also, in a way, identify WITH it.

Like Texans do with their flag now.