Electoral Trivia
I've been idly following the Real Clear Politics electoral map. I think some of it is kinda silly. Yesterday Virginia was "leaning Obama." I wondered when the last time Virginia went Democrat was.
I went back to 1968 (as far back as RCP's maps go, plus, since Nixon was the first President I was alive for, seems like a nice round election) and couldn't find a single example: it went Republican every time. I thought, what other states go Republican every election? Since 1968: Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Indiana. Plus Virginia.
How many have gone Democrat every time since 1968? None: just the District of Columbia. Of course, without the Republican blowouts in 1972 and 1984, there'd probably be more.
As George Will likes to remind us, the future is just like the past right up until the point where it's not, which is why I call this "trivia." Still, I think Indiana and Virginia are not likely to go Obama this year, despite close polls. 
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
Leave a comment