Maps! and Politics

I have to start off by apologizing to Brittany, because I didn't answer when she called me the other night. Sorry, Brit! I was trying to sleep my migraine off and I was almost asleep when you called, so I just pushed the button to silence my phone. I listened to your voicemail, though!

Ok, time for an Oregon political lesson :D. Brit asked why Oregon is a blue state and I think I might've talked about this in college, but I'll explain again :). I found a bunch of political maps from the 2004 election and they should help me out quite a bit :).

First of all, here is a map of the US, just so everyone can see exactly where Oregon is - on the west coast between Washington and California (in yellow):


Now, here's a map of Oregon by county - I'm from Grant County, which is in the eastern section of the state, kind-of in the middle (in green):


Here's the 2004 election results map for the US - democrat votes in blue, republican in red - notice how practically the whole state of Oregon is red except for the NW corner (Portland, Salem, etc.):


Taking into account the population differences in the country, here's how the political map should really look:

Notice how Oregon is mostly blue now. Say the population of the NW corner of the state is 4 million and the population of the rest of the state is 3 million. If the majority of the people in the big cities vote democrat and the majority of the people in the rest of the state vote republican, the state is still going to be blue. It sucks, because it makes it feel like the voice of the people in the smaller towns of Oregon isn't really heard. The vote of the people in the cities overshadows the small towns.

Here's one more map - one where they used a purplish color to indicate where the vote was blended:

See how Oregon is still mostly red or reddish-purple. This illustrates the point I made above. Even though most of the area of the state is republican, the heavily populated area turns the entire state blue.

I hope all of that makes sense! Let me know if you have any questions :). Oregon politics are really frustrating to me... the majority of the state is very conservative, especially when it comes to family values, religion, etc. and it's also based on farming/ranching/logging/agriculture industries. However, the heavily populated areas are very liberal as far as abortion, euthanasia, environmentalism, etc. Oregon passed the Death With Dignity act in 1994, which allows euthanasia - physician-assisted suicide - remember the name Dr. Kevorkian? Yep, the Oregon liberals loved him and his work. Oregon has some of the most liberal laws out there because of that tiny little corner of the state. It's crazy how much influence they've had over the rest of the state. Most of the forests are shut down (for logging, etc.) because of all of the environmental laws they've passed. They put my dad out of work for many months out of the year when he was a logger. I guess that makes me a bit biased on a lot of issues, but I've seen how a lot of laws impact a lot of people, so I'd like to think that my judgments are accurate.

Anyway, I guess that's enough of that. I'm feeling better today, so thanks again for the nice messages! :) Hopefully I'll get over this stuff soon. Ooh, just had another poll idea - what do you all think about flu shots? Do you get them? Do they make you sick? Do you recommend getting it? Lemme know! I have to decide if I want one or not.