my 2012 US presidential election experience was condensed into the last two weeks before the big vote. i landed in the focus zone of ohio, to be bombarded with TV and radio advertisements, newspaper endorsements, active political discourse (some positive, but mostly negative), and a general feeling of excitement and importance.
in the end, ohio went to obama, although he would have won the election without ohio's 18 electoral votes since he took 7 of the 8 "battleground" states.
what still baffles me is just how strongly urban areas support more liberal policies while rural areas, with lower populations, are conservative. take a look at the map of how the states voted
compared to a map that shows results from individual counties within each state. almost all the blue counties represent the big cities inside each state. there are a lot of red counties, but there are also very few people living in most of those counties.
when i moved away from the US, i started carrying a small map of the US in my wallet. when people ask where i'm from, and give me a confused look when i try to describe where ohio is among the states, i ask them to identify the right state on my map. i think only two people in the last 5 years have answered correctly! i wonder if people will guess correctly more often after this election. (i doubt it...)
another interesting aspect of this election was the global perspective that i gained while living abroad and having many international friends on twitter and my facebook feed. while i heard support for romney among my US-based acquaintances, essentially NO ONE that i know abroad even mentioned his name, much less showed support for him. globally speaking, obama was the overwhelmingly obvious choice.
now, i dont talk politics on this blog very much, but i'm feeling proud of my state and country. i'm particularly proud of the efforts of one friend who organized the heck out of obama's "get-out-the-vote" campaign in a couple key counties in the state. her efforts were well rewarded!
i'll share two quick videos and then leave the topic to rest. first, rachel maddow gives a concise summary of the election results and the current state of the US in 3 min and 12 sec:
second, president obama tells the story of "fired up! ready to go!" this gives me goose bumps every time i watch it.
in the end, ohio went to obama, although he would have won the election without ohio's 18 electoral votes since he took 7 of the 8 "battleground" states.
what still baffles me is just how strongly urban areas support more liberal policies while rural areas, with lower populations, are conservative. take a look at the map of how the states voted
 |
| presidential electoral results by state. (Credit: Huffington Post) |
compared to a map that shows results from individual counties within each state. almost all the blue counties represent the big cities inside each state. there are a lot of red counties, but there are also very few people living in most of those counties.
 |
| US presidential votes by county. (credit: common cents) |
when i moved away from the US, i started carrying a small map of the US in my wallet. when people ask where i'm from, and give me a confused look when i try to describe where ohio is among the states, i ask them to identify the right state on my map. i think only two people in the last 5 years have answered correctly! i wonder if people will guess correctly more often after this election. (i doubt it...)
another interesting aspect of this election was the global perspective that i gained while living abroad and having many international friends on twitter and my facebook feed. while i heard support for romney among my US-based acquaintances, essentially NO ONE that i know abroad even mentioned his name, much less showed support for him. globally speaking, obama was the overwhelmingly obvious choice.
now, i dont talk politics on this blog very much, but i'm feeling proud of my state and country. i'm particularly proud of the efforts of one friend who organized the heck out of obama's "get-out-the-vote" campaign in a couple key counties in the state. her efforts were well rewarded!
i'll share two quick videos and then leave the topic to rest. first, rachel maddow gives a concise summary of the election results and the current state of the US in 3 min and 12 sec:
second, president obama tells the story of "fired up! ready to go!" this gives me goose bumps every time i watch it.
1 comment:
In public school, they said a higher population density like China necessitated collective policies while the low population density of the time in America allowed capitalism to work. The implication was as the population increased, capitalism was not going to stay viable. Who knew we would be the last generation to know a time when capitalism was widely supported.
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