"The Great Divide" Retro vs. Metro America

[gumby]

"The Great Divide argues that American politics can be understood only within a new conceptual framework. The Unites States has seldom been and is not now a united nation. It is two nations: Retro America -- conservative and rooted in the past; and Metro America -- progressive and focused on the future"

This book is online and has some really good points about the issues in this election.

I especially like how they demonstrate how the blue states fund the red states.

http://www.retrovsmetro.org/book/

[LoZoccolo]

1. To register a complaint that America is being divided, they present...

...a divisive book. Go to this map:

http://www.electoral-vote.com

And you'll see that at most a red state is only 70% red.

Stuff like this basically seconds the divisive notions that the right-wing thrives on by taking the role of the other in their mythology, and is every bit as simple-minded.

I prefer Barack Obama's DNC keynote speech any day to this self-righteous, condescending crap.

[klook]

4. Good point!

See my post below. In fact, using the Red vs. Blue analogy, most states are either bluish purple or reddish purple. (But Green makes them brownish purple, right? And what color do we use for abstainers? White? Then most of the states range from pastel violet to mauve.)

[gumby]

8. Barack Obama

is not the P(resident) of the United States. Neither does he control the House of Representatives nor the Senate. He doesn't even control the courts, from the Supremes on down. All of that is controlled by extreemist right-wingnuts.

I haven't finished reading, but haven't concluded the writers are "simple-minded" nor "condescending."

And what does this mean: "And you'll see that at most a red state is only 70% red."? Like recognizing the "feelings" of the 30% minority somehow negates the fact they have to live under the unjust political and legal dictates of the red-majority?

[LoZoccolo]

9. I'm saying the whole concept of red and blue states is stupid...

...for anything other than counting electoral votes. For the purposes of dividing the country into warring terroritories it's stupid, dangerous, and unfair to at least 30% of the population of those states.

And Barack Obama is not the President of the United States, true, but that's only the second most-coveted job in the world. He was President of the Harvard Law Review.

[gumby]

11. We agree

I think Obama is Tops and I agree that the red state/blue state thing is a ruse and you'll notice that I mentioned the 30%.

I just didn't think that's what these authors were talking about. I'll read further.

[Florida_Geek]

2. they had a 3/4 page in Friday's USA Today

listing all the "welfare" states. Those are the mainly red southern states that receive more $$$ from the fed than they pay to the fed.

[klook]

3. It ain't all red and blue

or black and white. In Mississippi and Alabama, for example--two "Red states"--there are many poor Black and Hispanic people who would have a much harder time surviving and educating their children without the federal aid that goes to their states. It's extremely myopic to suggest that those states are 100% Republican.

[Florida_Geek]

5. You should have seend the Ad

what it talks about is the "welfare" states that get more $$ than they pay in.... BUT it talks about the extra money going to very very few people like the big farm owners....

[klook]

7. OK, then

That's a valid point. LoZoccolo's point about the oversimplification of the "Red vs. Blue states" analogy is also right on.

"The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."
--Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention, Boston

[Feanorcurufinwe]

6. I totally reject the paradigm of a divided America.

[gumby]

10. Rush Limbaugh has become a multi-millionaire

promoting the exact point of a divided America.

There are paradigms, and then there are dollars.

Most people follow the money.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. If you want Rush Limbaugh to shape your view of the world

that's your choice.

[yardwork]

13. I've seen their pop-up ads and I don't like them.

In fact, they pissed me off. I grew up in rural Ohio. I live in a so-called red state. I love being out in the country. I love alt-country music, folklore, and folk crafts. I do not live in a large city. I am not a "metro" person by any definition. I'm a life-long liberal Democrat. The great majority of my friends are liberal and most of them feel the same way.

Dividing America into artificial blocs and making fun of "country people" is a stupid way to try to elect anybody, imo.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

14. This rural dweller agrees