Getting Past The Electoral College Map And The Stupid Conflict Generating Generalities It Generates

Doing something I seldom do, follow up a Twitter thread I came across something by the nerdy cartoonist Randall Monroe that is probably accurate and, oddly, very important. 

Randall Munroe

@xkcd

Replying to

@xkcd

There are more Trump voters in California than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than NY, more Trump voters in NY than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Massachusetts, more Trump voters in Massachusetts than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.

There's a map that Monroe has drawn that adds some context to that observation.

 

 

If you go to the link and click on it you can get some detail as to where concentrations of Trump voters and Biden voters are located though like any such map, even one far, far better than the stupid and dangerous Electoral College maps, it will make votes for one or the other candidate disappear from view. Well, that's what the Electoral college does.

As a rural voter in a town which has, until recently, had a concentration of old-line Yankee Republicans ususally in the majority, I'm especially annoyed by the disappearing of voters.

One of the things that this points out is how the Electoral College exacerbates regional and even state divisions as it disenfranchises voters across the country, if you vote for a Democrat in a state that votes in even the tiniest majority or even a plurality for a Republican for president, the system throws out your vote. You can vote in every single presidential election and the sytem can disenfranchise you every time. And that's OK with so many small-state legislatures and Senates and others because they figure they can rig things when nothing about a democratic election should be open to any kind of rigging.

I was going to mention the putrid scumbag Rand Paul lying about the election of Joe Biden and it's good for that scumbag that I can't punch him in his lying mush. Rand, no doubt inheriting his elitism and racism from his libertarian daddy, things that "non-traditional" voters casting legal votes is illegitimate and produces an invalid result. No doubt he's afraid of "non-traditional" voters voting in his benighted state and throwing his ass out. I can't say that I don't resent Kentucky for giving us two of the worst Senators in recent memory - my state just reinstalled Susan Collins so Maine has nothing to be proud of in that regard - but I keep in mind that there are plenty of Kentuckians who voted for Joe Biden and who vote for better candidates, it's just that they aren't in the majority.

Rand Paul is a total disgrace, Kentucky should feel as ashamed of having him as a Senator as I do that Collins is in the Senate from Maine. I know it's not only the Second district, the most rural area of the state that went most strongly for her but there were plenty of Republican scumbuckets down here nearer the population center too. There's a whole lot of shame to go round.  

Having been critical of Randall Monroe in the past, I figure I should give credit where it is due.  He obviously understands how things get distorted, though his statement is more useful than the map, though it is a big improvement.