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+---
+title: 'The View From There'
+date: '2004-11-04T07:28:52-05:00'
+permalink: /the-view-from-there/
+tags:
+    - politics
+---
+
+Rory’s posted his take on all things U.S.-electoral, and it’s absolutely [mesmerizing](http://speedysnail.com/2004/11/united_states.html). Almost dizzying.
+
+There’s something about the graphic, too, that makes me wonder if the Republicans aren’t onto something with that whole states’ rights thing they’ve ostensibly been so hot after. Like, overturn Roe v. Wade in the stripey part, sure, but we in the states of the starry part have the right to follow the dictates of our own courts.
+
+Or, like, start a really problematic and really expensive war if you want to, but fund it with the taxes of the folks in the stripey part. We in the starry part choose to use our taxes to fund education.
+
+Okay, now I’m having fantasies of secession. This can lead to No Good. But it’s been nice to imagine, for a moment at least.
+
+(Here’s [Mena’s map](http://mena.typepad.com/dollarshort/2004/11/canada_20.html). This one’s not bad, either. Her California sub-division far more accurately represents the state of things, so to speak.)
+
+\[UPDATE, 9.33 am: Two more maps of actual voting patterns, one somewhat [heartening](http://www.boingboing.net/2004/11/03/purple_haze.html) and one much more [dis-](http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm). Even that second, though, has its revelations: an interesting Kerry-corridor along the Mississippi, for instance, right through the heart of Red America (and including my former home parish).\]
+