ROGER SIMON COLUMN
MARCH 9, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - - Rarely has a political concept caught on as quickly as the Red State/Blue State metaphor.
Virtually everyone understands the simple code: Red State means Republican and conservative. Blue state means Democratic and liberal.
But, of course, it means much, much more:
Shortly after Election Day, an anonymous e-mail began circulating around the nation:
"Not to worry. With the Blue States in hand, the Democrats have firm control of 80 percent of the world's fresh water, over 90 percent of our pineapple and lettuce, 93 percent of the artichoke production, 95 percent of American's export quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese production, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Caltech and MIT. We can live simply but well.
"The Red States, on the other hand, now have to cope with 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, 100 percent of all Televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. A high price to pay for controlling the presidency."
There is something both vaguely amusing and vaguely alarming about this e-mail (comparing Southern Baptists to mosquitoes is certainly uncalled for) but it accepts as fact the notion there is a great divide in America, a gulf, a polarization, a Red State/Blue state division.
But how divided are we really?
The Red States/Blue State obsession - - and I think both politicians and the media are truly obsessed with it - - didn't really occur until the presidential election of 2000, the disputed results in Florida, and the rare phenomenon of the popular vote winner not winning in the Electoral College and, therefore, not becoming president.
There have long been battleground states, but now, with the acceptance of the Red/Blue concept many see a chasm: a deeply divided America.
When the Democrats lost the presidency again last year and lost ground in the House and Senate, something akin to panic gripped the party.
Something must be done! The message must be changed! Or maybe not. Maybe it wasn't the message, maybe the Democrats just needed to get out the vote better, raise even more money and stop letting the other side define them.
But how bad, really, was the Democratic loss? And has an actual, long-term political realignment begun in this country?
In the past, long-term realignments have come at moments of great crisis: the Civil War realigns support to the Republican party as the party of union, defending the Constitution and anti-slavery. The Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world, leads to the election of Franklin Roosevelt and his Democratic alliance of labor, blacks and other minorities, some farmers, those on relief and intellectuals.
But has there been another dramatic re-alignment in the country recently, making the continued election of Republican presidents virtually inevitable? And, if so, what caused it? Sept. 11? A culture gap? Both? More?
Stay tuned.