Election 08 Map: This Speaks Volumes

Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Douglas and I maintain the website Global-Atheist. Neece has been kind enough to allow me to mar up the place with my ramblings. I'm a member of the left-wing conspiracy and a godless heathen. Pleasure to meetcha! (Oh no, Sarah Palin folk talk... what will we do without you?)

As my first post I wanted to show you a little golden nugget of a map. It's a beautiful map in my eyes and shows just how far our country has come in the last eight years, or even the past four.

[caption id="attachment_625" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="How the counties of the United States voted when compared to 2004."][/caption]

I think this map speaks volumes about how fed up the population of the United States have been when it comes to the direction of this country. The gist of the map is this: the more blue the county, the more democratic it voted this election; and the more red, the more republican. As you can see by this map, only the "bible belt" voted more republican and I really don't think this is much of a surprise. (Christian Protip: Obama is the Antichrist and the rapture is coming soon.)

This has been stated on numerous websites and blogs around the country but I will reiterate because I feel the same: for once, I'm not ashamed to tell someone I'm from America. I feel I can say this without Bush hanging around my neck causing extreme embarrassment (and a horrible rash). After the wholesale trashing of the constitution caused by Bush and his henchmen, I'd expect that Obama will get to work on fixing these things.

Finally, we are no longer going to be ran by a president who's only path of leading was to strike fear into people and then tell them that they're the only ones who knows how to help save us. It's like McCain saying during the election campaign that he knew how to get Osama bin Laden. Really now? You were holding that piece of information why? Are you going to tell Obama how to find him? Are you going to tell Bush so that he can end his presidency on a slightly higher note? Or, Senator McCain, were the words you said a little - hmm, whats the word I'm looking for... ... oh yes... a LIE?

The premise was "I know how to find the bad guy, he doesn't", which was - again - trying to sway people by stoking the fears in them. McCain was pulling out the old tricks from the Republican play book. Since September 2001 the republicans have been running on a platform of fear. Fear that only they could keep us safe, while looking at the constitution of the United States and tearing it up. We've lost so many rights and liberties under Bush. As I stated above, it's now up to the democrats to fix what Bush has broken.

McCain, and his followers, were following the Republican mantra the entire election: Obama palls around with terrorist, Obama has a scary middle-eastern name, Obama is a secret Muslim, Obama is going to steal your money and give it to those who don't deserve it, and my favorite one: shhhhh, Obama is black.

While race wasn't played altogether heavily in the run up to the election as I thought, I did find it very very interesting that if you looked at the McCain's rallies and his gathering for his concession speech it was almost entirely a room of white people. Whereas if you look at Obama's rallies and his huge victory speech gathering, it was an awe inspiring mix of everything that this country is made of.

That reminds me of some video I saw coming from a McCain rally when a middle aged white woman was talking to a reporter and said, with a stern and solemn expression, that the blacks were going to take over the country. Where in this day in age does that even come into the mix. I guess I've been living in a utopia in my mind but I do believe this is the 21st century, is it not? When are we going to move past ignorance and stupidity and march into the future. Obviously we've made great strides where 50 years ago blacks and whites were segregated and now we've just elected a black president. While that point fills my heart with pride, the fact we still have such ignorance floating around dampens that pride quite a bit.

The entirety of the past eight years came to a head Tuesday night at 11PM Eastern when, as I watched MSNBC, they declared Obama the winner. Watching the huge crowd gather in Chicago where they estimate the attendance was upwards to a quarter-million people. Seeing countless people tearing up as they shouted together Obama's slogan "yes we can" mixed with a newer and updated version: "yes we did". Then, when the emcee said "Ladies and gentlemen, the next first family of the United States" it hit me. That was the moment when it really sunk in, we really did do it. Senator Obama will be in two months time President Obama.