How do you feel about this map of America and how its political interests are accurately split?

[Anonymous]

https://purplestatesofamerica.org

MCheetah here. I'm posting this "anonymously" so that everyone can answer, even the far-left extremists that have probably blocked me, or I blocked.

Aside from a few outliers, like California, New England, Wyoming, or West Virginia, most of America is strongly purple, or "neither far left, nor far right." Most accurately, in the middle when it comes to politics. Of course, I've always known this, and still do. But the extremists are pulling everyone apart; both on the left and right!

How do you feel about this? Are you an extremist yourself (on the left or right)? Or are you in the middle like I am?

Inspired by this question here.

Updates

+1 y

Some people missed my point and went the extremist "But the other side is still evil, anyway!" route. On BOTH sides.

[goaded]

None of this is remotely possible in the US of the last 50 years or so, but for what it's worth, this is what I'd suggest:

Popular vote for president, they're supposed to represent everyone in the country, not a minority. Yes, small states will have less of a say, but millions of Californians vote Republican. The Senate is still heavily biased in favour of the small states.

More candidates for president, but with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_runoff_voting so that your vote to the left or the right of the most popular candidate will encourage them to move in your direction without your vote being "wasted". You never know, a moderate candidate might actually win when other parties go too far and put up too flawed a candidate. Maybe the same for Governors. You end up with officials who are acceptable to the majority of the voters.

An example 2016 vote for someone like me in a six-way matchup could have been Sanders, Stein, Clinton, Romney, yours might have been Trump, Johnson, Romney, Sanders. You'd have ended up with one of the more moderate candidates, probably, or Sanders because he's got really popular policies.

Trickier: Find a way to ensure that political debates and analysis are balanced and not shouting matches. Go back and watch some political discussions from the 1960s; people at least pretended to listen to each other and were given time to talk. Yes, they were boring, but elections should be more serious than reality TV.

Finally, get money out of politics. The media make billions off political campaigns, so they're never going to push the idea. There's a group called wolf-pac. com that are trying to get a constitutional amendment to fix the "money is speech" problem.

FWIW, I've only ever blocked one person on here, and that just long enough for them to forget they were trolling me. I'm pretty sure you've blocked me, though.

[Asker]

Yeah, when people attack me, insult me, or talk crap, even for political reasons ("All Trump supporters like you should go kill themselves," for example), I block them. So that's probably why.

Good answer, today.

[goaded]

I've never said anything like that, at least the "kill themselves" part. I may have generalised occasionally.

I wasted my time writing this to a question of yours, it just occurred to me that the cartoon fits to it rather nicly:

Just your own image shows that both Trump (36.8) and Clinton (37.3) were less popular than Biden is now (38.5), earlier in their terms, and if you look at the other presidents' whole terms, not just the first 542 days, both HW Bush (27.6) and Reagan (35.3) were less popular at some point.

Biden is lumbered with a Senate that is supposedly under Democratic control, but it only takes one (coal-company owning) Democratic senator to block everything, since not ONE Republican will vote for anything that wouldn't be a Republican policy.

[Asker]

Sigh... This is why I normally don't talk to people like you.

[goaded]

I don't really miss it. Doesn't it bother you that you post questions like Joe Biden is now the Least Popular President of Modern History in Less Than Two Years of his Term. "Most Voted-For President in History," though! ↗ when four of the last six had lower ratings at some point in their terms?

[goaded]

One more thing. You, as a society, need to stop accepting outright liars on TV. I just watched a anti-choice woman lie on British TV that Roe didn't allow any laws restricting abortions to be passed, and that it allowed "abortion at any time paid for by the taxpayer".

[Asker]

The difference between you and me is, I call out BS whenever I see it. Where as you take sides and think one group (the left) is somehow better than the other (the right). And unless I missed

I'd be pointing out Biden's disastrous presidency whether he was a Democrat or Republican, because reality is reality and he's ten times the embarrassment than anyone (who's being honest) could ever say about Trump.

In short: I don't play sides. Which is why you (now) missed the very point of this post here. And then made two biased, disingenuous posts defending the left (specifically Biden) or attacking the right.

Even if we take what you said as "accurate," how does that excuse everything else about the Biden administration and the disastrous things they are *directly* doing to the US and US' image? Which, you know, I also made in that post?

Trump, Clinton, and Obama never directly affected the country like what Biden is doing right now. The only one who comes close is Dubya. who was a horrible president in his own right, but nowhere near this bad, and this soon.

[Asker]

*And unless I missed something, you're not even American. I'm an American overseas right now. So unless you are the same, it's unfair to look at things from a European perspective and judge America by it without having lived here in years, if at all.

(I meant to type)

[goaded]

That's funny!

You "don't take sides", but you'll post something about Biden being "the least popular president in modern history", when your own source shows that he's not, and ignore that Trump's popularity peaked below 46%, and dropped down to 36.8%? (This is me calling out BS when I see it.)

Name one time you've called out BS from Republicans. The 2020 presidential election - fair or stolen? Jan 6th - planned coup attempt or grass-roots action that got out of hand?

Exactly what policies has Biden enacted that have been "disastrous"? Should I be blaming him for the inflation in Europe?

Bear in mind, the policies actually have to have been implemented, so no blaming the Green New Deal for Texas' power failures. As to the US image abroad, from an outside perspective, it's greatly improved, except for the whole Roe v Wade thing that was Trump's doing. What country are you in, that's got a worse impression of America today than two years ago? Hungary? Russia?

Referring back to your map. It would be even more instructive if the strength of the colours depended on the number of people in each area. Land doesn't vote, people do. Do you have a source for that map and the data, at all?

[Asker]

"Name one time you've called out BS from Republicans. "

I literally just did, idiot.

"Trump, Clinton, and Obama never directly affected the country like what Biden is doing right now. THE ONLY ONE WHO COMES CLOSE IS DUBYA. who was a horrible president in his own right, but nowhere near this bad, and this soon."

You want more? How about all my MyTakes about how idiotic the pro-life debate is?

Literally The Dumbest Abortion Argument I've Ever Seen On The Internet (Abortion/Pro-Life) ↗

You're EXACTLY the type of person this post was meant to say most of Americans aren't like.
I don't have time to waste on Progressive ideologues and low intelligence sheep like you.
Stay blocked.

[Asker]

"Referring back to your map. It would be even more instructive if the strength of the colors depended on the number of people in each area."

The second and third bottom left ones are county maps, stupid. Not that your point even makes any sense, since presidents aren't elected on the popular vote. We have the Electoral College.

THIS is why I blocked you and others like you: disingenuous, one-sided BS like this. That this very post was meant to say most of us aren't like.

[goaded]

"Trump, Clinton, and Obama never directly affected the country like what Biden is doing right now. THE ONLY ONE WHO COMES CLOSE IS DUBYA. who was a horrible president in his own right, but nowhere near this bad, and this soon."

You mean GW Bush, who by this point in his presidency had started what was to turn out to be a 20 year war and about to start a second? But Biden is somehow worse than that. How? That really sounds like you're calling out Republican BS there!

Then, unless you're saying all Republicans are like "This high-functioning Autist is extremely pro-life, extremely anti-Left, and makes his entire identity online as being someone to mock the left.", that question's not exactly calling out Republican BS, either.

Have you called out Trump's election lies? Have you called out the attempted coup? Have you named a disasterous Biden policy?

Then you pretend you don't take sides.

[ChiTown33]

That's why I love my state. We're not party line. We're generally considered a swing state. We vote first every presidential election. We brought you people both Obama and Trump lol. I laugh whenever some blue state thinks they so progressive. Because odds are Iowa was doing long before you. To us it's not being progressive it just about doing what is right.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLZZ6JD0g9Y

[purplepoppy]

It's often said if an American tells you his view on one subject eg gun you automatically know his view on everything else. It's also believed that when a new issue arises Americans wait until they find out if its a left or right issue before agreeing. Based on my experience on GAG I find both statements true. So perhaps GAG attracts extremists more than normal people. I definitely find Americans I meet in real life aren't as mentally fucked up as GAG ones.

In the UK both main parties aren't that far from the center. Smaller extremist parties with unsavoury views like the BNP pick up very few votes and most people fund their views distasteful. When Trump got elected it seemed clear to us that America had moved away from normal people to the extremists and hate-mongers.

[Uannoyme]

I agree that most people are closer to the center. I would consider myself close to the center, but a bit to the right. It seems like everyone is extreme because those people are the loudest. The rest of us are just busy living our lives.

[BeMuse]

County by county is the appropriate way to look at it.

[Anonymous]

It's actually all Ruby red with only the disgusting backwards slime in cities holding us back from being a utopia

[SmokinAces2000]

Lol 😂 you blocked me and I’m not even an extremist so it’s clear that you block people for disagreeing with you

[Asker]

No. You're a far left, SJW, Progressive who can't be argued or reasoned with. I remember all your BLM bullshit. So stay mad.

[SmokinAces2000]

Lmao like I said you block people for disagreeing with you, it’s not far left to think that my life matters but I don’t expect you to understand that

[Asker]

I also block inanely stupid people like you who are ALSO extremists. I don't have time for that bullshit on GAG.

[Asker]

Keep thinking you're "not an extremist" while you blame all of your problems on your skin color, Trump, and conservatives. I posted a question about most of America not being on the extreme left or extreme right, and you managed to make it all about you, and tried to justify your extreme leftist views when you asked while I blocked you, and then wonders why I don't want to talk to radical, super-far left people like yourself.

[SmokinAces2000]

😂 when did I say I blame anything on my skin color Trump or conservatives and I didn’t make anything about me I’m just pointing out your hypocrisy