The last two dozen, or A kind of symmetry

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What's wrong with this list? (And if that's too easy for you, provide the
other wrong list.)

South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina
Mississippi
Mississippi
Texas
Georgia
Georgia
Nebraska
Mississippi
Nebraska
Mississippi
Utah
Utah
Utah
Utah
Mississippi
Utah
Wyoming
Utah

Adrian (EOE)

 

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"Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eIejd.1387$hp4.506@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> What's wrong with this list? (And if that's too easy for you, provide the
> other wrong list.)
>
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> South Carolina
> Mississippi
> Mississippi
> Texas
> Georgia
> Georgia
> Nebraska
> Mississippi
> Nebraska
> Mississippi
> Utah
> Utah
> Utah
> Utah
> Mississippi
> Utah
> Wyoming
> Utah

It seems to be the states that gave the highest % of the vote at each
election to either the Democrats (first 12 1912-1956) or Republicans (last
12 1960-2004). Interesting to see how dramatically the South switched from
solid Democrat to solid Republican.

Peter Smyth

 

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"Peter Smyth" <psmyth@freenetname.co.uk> wrote in message
news:2v9qu5F2iptflU1@uni-berlin.de...
> "Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eIejd.1387$hp4.506@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> > What's wrong with this list? (And if that's too easy for you, provide
the
> > other wrong list.)
> >
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > South Carolina
> > Mississippi
> > Mississippi
> > Texas
> > Georgia
> > Georgia
> > Nebraska
> > Mississippi
> > Nebraska
> > Mississippi
> > Utah
> > Utah
> > Utah
> > Utah
> > Mississippi
> > Utah
> > Wyoming
> > Utah
>
> It seems to be the states that gave the highest % of the vote at each
> election to either the Democrats (first 12 1912-1956) or Republicans (last
> 12 1960-2004). Interesting to see how dramatically the South switched from
> solid Democrat to solid Republican.

This man is good! Well spotted, sir.

I kind of had a feeling that 1960 had been a pivotal year in US politics,
but I was surprised to see how clear-cut the switch has been. While the Wild
West has always been Republican, the older states have effectively switched
allegiance en bloc, the traditionally GOP north-east (and Pacific) now solid
blue* and the Democrat South now being conservative with both a small _and_
a big C. It's just crazy that one state (Mississippi) should switch extremes
in just twenty years. (ObRP: What would the bookmaker's odds have been on
such an eventuality?) For reference, here's the two lists:

Crat best state/Repub best state
1912 SC/Utah
1916 SC/Vermont
1920 SC/ND
1924 SC/Vermont
1928 SC/Kansas
1932 SC/Vermont
1936 SC/Vermont
1940 MISS/SD
1944 MISS/Kansas
1948 Texas/Vermont
1952 Georgia/Vermont
1956 Georgia/Vermont
1960 RI/Nebraska
1964 RI/MISS
1968 RI/Nebraska
1972 MASS/MISS
1976 Georgia/Utah
1980 Georgia/Utah
1984 Minnesota/Utah
1988 RI/Utah
1992 Arkansas/MISS
1996 MASS/Utah
2000 RI/Wyoming
2004 MASS/Utah

* I read somewhere that it's only recently that the networks have settled on
blue for Democrats and red for Republicans, the colours in the past having
depended on which party the incumbent was from (or some such). Anyone here
know?

Adrian

 

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Adrian Bailey wrote:

>
> * I read somewhere that it's only recently that the networks
> have settled on blue for Democrats and red for Republicans,
> the colours in the past having depended on which party the
> incumbent was from (or some such). Anyone here know?

The terms 'Red state' and 'Blue state' date from the aftermath of
the last election. Before that the various media either switched
colors every election or had blue=incumbent/red=challenger. Now
the idiom overrides those proactices.

In a thread on the SDMB (link below) someone cited an article by
David Brooks in the Dec 2001 Atlantic Monthly titled "One Nation,
Slightly Divisible: A Report from 'Red' and 'Blue' America" as
the source of the Red/Blue state idiom.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=282600

That article dates from a year after the election. It seems to me
that the terms were in use before that, but memory is fallible...

--
Dan Tilque

 

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Somebody claiming to be "Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:tXTjd.2733$Q7.1439@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

> I kind of had a feeling that 1960 had been a pivotal year in US
> politics, but I was surprised to see how clear-cut the switch has
> been.

Actually, the pivotal year was 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed.
I believe that every single Southern Democrat in the Senate voted against
it, while most of the Northerners (both Republican and Democrat) voted in
favor. (Goldwater voted against largely on the grounds of the "public
accommodations" clause, which he felt would allow the government to meddle
too much in the private affairs of business.)

--
Ted <fedya at bestweb dot net>
Barney: Hey, Homer, you're late for English.
Homer: Who needs English? I'm never going to England.
<http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F12.html>

 

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Adrian Bailey:
> * I read somewhere that it's only recently that the networks have settled on
> blue for Democrats and red for Republicans...

True. See <http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/redblue.php>.
--
Mark Brader "... we still feel that color is hard
Toronto on the eyes for so long a picture ..."
msb@vex.net -- N.Y. Times review of GONE WITH THE WIND

 

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"Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<eIejd.1387$hp4.506@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk>...
> What's wrong with this list?
[election trivia snipped]

Well, the fact that it's trivia and not a puzzle springs to mind.
"What have I got in my pocket?"
Socks

 

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Adrian Bailey (dadge@hotmail.com) writes:
> I kind of had a feeling that 1960 had been a pivotal year in US
> politics, but I was surprised to see how clear-cut the switch has been.
> While the Wild West has always been Republican, the older states have
> effectively switched allegiance en bloc, the traditionally GOP
> north-east (and Pacific) now solid blue* and the Democrat South now
> being conservative with both a small _and_ a big C. It's just crazy that
> one state (Mississippi) should switch extremes in just twenty years.
> (ObRP: What would the bookmaker's odds have been on such an
> eventuality?) For reference, here's the two lists:

I also note that Vermont was up to 1956 many the times the best state
for the Republicans. In 2004 it was one of the strongest for the
Democrats. Of course, the strongest stronghold for the Democrats is
no state at all, but District of Columbia. What was it: 90% for Kerry?

Another interesting tidbit in the list is that since 1976, the strongest
state for the Democrates is no less than four times the home state for
the Democratic candidate.



--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, esquel@sommarskog.se

 

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"Peter Smyth" <psmyth@freenetname.co.uk> wrote in message news:<2v9qu5F2iptflU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> "Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eIejd.1387$hp4.506@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> > Mississippi
> > ...
> > Mississippi ...
>
> ... Interesting to see how dramatically the South switched from
> solid Democrat to solid Republican.

In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, one of the
most controversial laws in U.S. history. I don't have the exact
quote handy, but he indicated to his confidants that he was signing
the death warrant for the Democrat Party in the South, but had to
do "the right thing." (In those days, now almost forgotten, there
was an institution of nine respectable men called the Supreme Court,
who quickly affirmed, by a vote of 9-0, much of the Civil Rights Act
in the case Heart of Atlanta Motel vs United States, et al.)

Lyndon B. Johnson was a great President, greatly under-appreciated.

James

 

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<pvppet_sock@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c7976c46.0411091203.bb26a00@posting.google.com...
> "Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<eIejd.1387$hp4.506@fe1.news.blveyonder.co.vk>...
> > What's wrong with this list?
> [election trivia snipped]
>
> Well, the fact that it's trivia and not a pvzzle springs to mind.

If there was a rec.pvzzles.trivia, I wovld've posted there instead. Honest.
Anyway, having checked the faq, I can't find any gvidelines which exclvde
any particvlar type of pvzzle. In fact "trivia" is listed as one of the
pvzzle types at rec-pvzzles.org.

And svrely anyone wovld agree that the facts of the changing politography of
the USA are less trivial than the fact that only one state has one syllable,
or that the Fibonacci series is concealed in the names of the States in the
order that they joined the Union, etc.

Adrian

 

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In rec.games.trivia James Dow Allen <jdallen2000@yahoo.com> wrote:

: Lyndon B. Johnson was a great President, greatly under-appreciated.

Lyndon Johnson was a tragic figure in the strict sense of the term.
He could have been one of the greatest presidents in history if his
incredible ability to get everyone to agree with him had not led to
the disaster in Vietnam.

-----
Richard Schultz schultr@mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed.
They've dragged her to the bushes, and now she's being stabbed.
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain.
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game.