>>>It can be overstated, of course, and I'm sorry if I did. No state out of the 50 is 100% to 0% for either party, or even close. Still, there are pronounced tendencies.
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>>Nathaniel called me on the red vs. blue terminology this weekend. He pointed out that portraying things that way is a big part of what's wrong with politics in this country. The terminology is polarizing. So I'm going to try to cut it out.
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>Which is fine, but I make no such vow. To me the terms "red state" and "blue state" refer to well-established voting patterns, based on observable, demonstrable results. I don't believe using the terms *causes* the voting pattern any more than observing that Florida has a higher average temperature than Michigan causes it to be so.

No, I don't think the term causes the voting. His point, with which I agree, was that the terminology causes us to feel more different from each other than we actually are, and thus causes more discord. We should all be looking for what we have in common rather than the opposite.

Tamar