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The post-election hangover today was a little easier to endure than it was in 2000 and 2004. Even though the presidential race was over early, I stayed up way too late refreshing the map of Minnesota, hoping to find out who was elected Senator there. It turns out we’ll have to wait until after a recount. It’s win-win for me, because we either get Al Franken in the Senate or back on the radio.
I’m still kind of addicted to the maps. I like seeing how the votes went within the states, and it’s encouraging to see that there are no totally red or totally blue states. Except Oklahoma, I guess. It’s hard to find a Democrat in Oklahoma. There aren’t even any Democrats in any counties in other states that border Oklahoma. I wonder if some day, many years from now, there will be Oklahomans who, like the rest of us, will brag that they voted for Barack Obama. Life has a funny way of twisting people’s memories around.
Hold it a minute. The people in Muskogee voted for the Democratic challenger for the Senate. He only won four counties, but at least it proves that even Oklahoma isn’t monolithic. Muskogee! How about that?
Most states, even the ones that went Democratic, show pockets of blue and vast open spaces of red. Even California has its own dichotomy. For the most part, the coastal areas are Democratic, and the inland part is almost totally Republican. I guess it’s like that in a lot of places. The more you’re thrown together in populated areas where diverse people have learned to live with each other, the less insular you’re likely to be in your thinking and your voting. I have faith that the rest of the country will get there eventually. We’re obviously on the way. | 
