Red states and blue states? Flyover country and the coasts? How simplistic. Colin Woodard, a reporter at the Portland Press Herald and author of several books, says North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states, where dominant cultures explain our voting behaviors and attitudes toward everything from social issues to the role of government.
“The borders of my eleven American nations are reflected in many different types of maps — including maps showing the distribution of linguistic dialects, the spread of cultural artifacts, the prevalence of different religious denominations, and the county-by-county breakdown of voting in virtually every hotly contested presidential race in our history,” Woodard writes in the Fall 2013 issue of Tufts University’s alumni magazine. “Our continent’s famed mobility has been reinforcing, not dissolving, regional differences, as people increasingly sort themselves into like-minded communities.”
You’ve got it wrong. Split up around cities. Missouri is mostly rural God fearing folks EXCEPT Kansas City and St Louis. Georgia is the same except Atlanta, Virginia except around DC, Texas except Austin, Dallas Ft Worth, etc
I just finished this book last week, and while the beginning 2/3’s of it is ok (and (based on the book NINE NATIONS by Joel Garreau,) the last 1/3 of this book becomes a screed about “Christian fundamentalist sharia law” and other diatribe about “women’s rights to abort their children”. (Garreau’s book is supposed to be better) In other words, a mouthpiece for a Yankee’s right to rule your life.
The premise (not original to the author as previously stated) regarding regional differences due to cultural influences at time of settlement is intriguing and brings up discussion. I live in the Midlands, settled by Quaker/pacifist sects that were mostly ambiguous to the Am. Rev and whom they supported. (Don’t rock the boat, baby)
I highly doubt that is going to apply today — too many coal miners, loggers, farmers struggling or out of work, tired of seeing their hard earned money supporting the FSA.
I agree with Lori. It is the cities versus agriculture and woodlands. The cities resemble Sodom and Gomorrah. I wish we could give Philadelphia to New Jersey.
Which falls back into Agenda 21.
I’ve been to two “Smart Growth” meetings in the Hershey Pa area. These people resemble the Olympia politicians of the Glen Tate series.
How about the Conservatives just send the Progressives to live in China? That way everyone is happy, except maybe the Chinese.
Oh, heck, the Chinese would welcome more people for their slave labor camps.
I’d like to go toe to toe with Woodard to discuss my book “After America: Rebuilding”. Even without knowing who he writes for, it’s easy to spot his bias when reading the excerpt for his book. Once again the American Indian is completely forgotten in the formula. Spoken like a true Western egalitarian. The comments about violence most prevalent in The South and Appalachia sounds more like a social gathering at an Ivy league school, those doing the talking having no outside knowledge of the real world. I believe we will Balkanize eventually but it will surprise people at how the continent breaks up and who joins whom in the rebuilding process. One of the things that skews these type of conclusions is what Lori hit on. The cities have become what dictates who gets the votes now. Obama, or at least his handlers, have done a magnificent job of recognizing that the only thing that matters in election today in the country are the population centers. If a candidate controls the cities, whether through money, voter fraud or corruption, that candidate wins without even considering the outlying precincts. That is the formula the Clintons, at the time the most powerful machine in the country, missed. So what these writers base much of their observations on, politics, is meaningless.
Well I can’t say much about the other 10 countries. But he pegged this Yankeedom to a Tee. I live in The People’s Republic of Minnesota and his summary is spot on. I really wish my wife would agree to move but so far no luck in that department.