This area completely baffles me. Why is it blue? In truth I have very little experience with that part of the country. The blue dot in the middle of Iowa I have some experience with, that's Des Moines and they wish they were a big city with highbrow intellectuals almost the same as the little blue dot in the middle of Missouri which is Columbia and Home of UMC. The difference is Des Moines kinda pulls it off while Columbia is just foolin itself, but I digress.
The area I have crudely circled is a complete mystery to me. I have some familiarity with both the Missouri and Illinois counties right under this blue stain. I even have some familiarity with the red counties just East of the blue stains in Wisconsin but truth be told I have no real knowledge of the blue areas.
Yet how can they be so different from their neighbors?
There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING there. A few larger towns that don't really rate as even small cities along the river is about it. I would expect Quincy to be blue if that was the reason.
I always thought most of the immigrants up that way were basically the same stock that settled in the Dakotas more or less and the Dakotas go reliably red.
Maybe there is a reader with some knowledge of this area willing to help me out here?
Southeast Minnesota history
ReplyDeletehttp://www.co.dodge.mn.us/pdf/history.pdf
Possibly a remnant of the populist movement - that was opposed to big business Republicanism. But of course the world is always a confusing place. Southeast MN was the slowest to leave over the post-war/rebellion switch of the Republicans to being the party of big business.
More importantly I am not aware of any apocalyptic-prepper type stories set in the area. There are a few in MN, but they all gravitate further north.
First it's nice to see you out of your tent Achilles.
ReplyDeleteSecond I think this is another case of people fleeing from Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin craziness but taking the causes with them.
We are going to have to come up with an anti-Californication program, because unless we are willing to Berlin Wall all the Marxist areas of the country we have to rhetorically educate refugees who come to our midst.
I don't know if we've shunned them or confronted them too bluntly causing them to shut their ears to what caused them to leave their old state. All I know is that we need a systematic approach to reach everyone of them who is reachable in order to keep them from acting like political Typhoid Marys.
Yes you do. I can't account for why others vote as they do and can only offer a glimpse of my tiny area.
ReplyDeleteIt's the driftless area. Agriculture, tourism, and artisans. "Big buck Mecca" for hunters. It's a short list as to who doesn't own firearms/ bows/ etc.
3 years in a row of crop obliterating weather incidents. The fleeing thing.. has a hint of truth to it. Retire to the countryside.