When I look at maps of election results for the 2022 midterms and for the 2020 presidential election, I am always surprised that the vast majority of land in colored RED (for Republicans) and that the BLUE (Democrats) are represented primarily by a few patches around the Northeast coast, the West Coast, and several dense urban areas.
These maps make it look like most of the country is Republican. However, these maps are a bit misleading. From a land mass perspective, it appears that way. For certain states, Republican voters outweigh Democrats by a significant percentage. When you tally the entire country, registered Democrats have the larger percentage of registered voters.
My state, North Carolina, has more republicans than Democrats. Like other Red/Purplish states, our Democrats are concentrated in our two biggest metro areas. The rest of the state is solid Red.
At first, I’m shocked to see how many people vote Republican. I think about the imbecility and chaotic behavior of Trump, his supporters in the Senate and House (eg. Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert, Jim Jordan etc.). I think about people voting to ban abortion, right wing Christian fundamentalists and obnoxious, if not outright racist, behavior. How can more the half of my fellow North Carolinians support this?
Then I stop and ponder the Democrats for a moment. I think about their silliness in culture war battles. I think about how ineffective and self serving they’ve been during the past two years (and my entire lifetime).
And finally I think – I’m not outnumbered by one side or the other. I’m outnumbered by both sides. Despite their pandering, performative behavior and stated “values”, they are all the same – disappointing and self serving.
Which is why I don’t even vote anymore. I don’t like to bang my head against the wall.
What the stark land mass differences in these Dem/Rep maps does do for me is make me realize that I am out of step with at least half of my country – perhaps I’m out of step with the majority of it when we consider what I think of both parties.
But I like my neighbors. I like the people I see at the pool. I like the people I see at the grocery store, the vet, and the hardware store.
Judging people through a political affiliation lens doesn’t work for me.
I realize that I don’t know how most of the people I am loosely connected with voted. And I don’t really care. Apparently neither do they care about how I voted since we never discuss it.
Many years ago, one of my great bosses and mentors said to me, “Most people are just trying to make a decent living, put food on their table, pay their bills and go home to their families.”
Pretty much just like you and me.