In response to Kerry's Open Call on interesting facts about this election, I started playing around with the New York Times Election Results maps.
I found out that, if you take the NYT's word for it, Arkansas actually turned a pretty deep red this election. In fact, the Republicans overall gained 20% more percentage points in Arkansas than they did in the 2004 election.
The tool that shows voting shifts shows Democrats lost a lot of ground they once held in the state. This appears to be the exact opposite trend from the rest of the country.
It doesn't help that Obama didn't campiagn here, I suppose. Arkansasans do like to have their hands shaken and watch their politicians eat raccon (literally) That doesn't account for the shift toward the right this election, though. The County Leader's map shows a pretty drastic change.
In 2008, 9 counties voted for majority for Barack Obama (my home county included). In 2004, more than 20 counties voted majority for John Kerry. In 2000, over 30 counties voted majority for Al Gore. Of course, during the Clinton years, almost the entire state went Democratic from the "home boy makes good" effect.
It appears the only counties that went Obama this year are all in the extreme southeastern part of the state, along the Mississppi River, except for Jefferson County and Pulaski County, where Little Rock is located.
In 2004, there were Democratic pockets all over the state. In 2000, the majority of the state went Republication, but there were even more pockets of Democrats in every geographical region in the state except the extreme Northwest, home of Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt. Oh, yeah, and the Duggars. In short, while the rest of the country got more Democratic, Arkansas got more Republican.
In the county where I grew up, Pope, the results were 70% McCain and 30% Obama. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am surprised to see that the Democrats lost so much ground in the northern parts of the state. I don't want to insinuate that color has anything to do with the shift, but it's definitely interesting, considering that Arkansas has a Democratic Governor who is universally loved, Mike Beebe.
Doubly interesting that Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is the home of the Univeristy of Arkansas as well as the Duggars. However, per capita, that part of the state has very few African-American residents. The southern part of the state is largely African-American in population.
Arkansas politics have always been weirdly fickle and pragmatic at the same time, so we balance out everything with a kind of quirky centrism. Before the 1957 integration of Central High School, Arkansas was actually known as a progressive state when it came to Civil Rights.
I'd be extremely curious to see what local pundits might make of this. What's driving it? It can't be support for the war, mainly because that goes against all my anecdotal experience in the state. Almost everyone I know, across the board, thinks the war is a disaster.
I have a few other observations to make, but sleep is overcoming me.
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In Indiana, my new home, we're starting to say "At least we're not Kentucky" in much the same way Vols and Razorbacks say "At least we're not Mississippi." Yet, MS hasn't transitioned. Ronnie Musgrove came pretty close to becoming a U.S. Senator.
As an aside, I never would call myself a redneck - I respect its meaning, and I never had a farmer's tan. But I'm proud to be a hillbilly. Or at least I used to be proud.
I've never understood the racial fear either, but it does look like there was some kind of influence by Obama's race on the electorate, especially considering the drastic shifts. I'm disappointed in Arkansas right now, but I can't say any of this truly surprises me.
During the pre-election era I received too many emails aimed at arousing fear in the ignorant, uneducated, unthinking people of both parties. I hope and pray that Obama will be able to overcome the negativity of those way too many slanderous posts.
- he's black so they can't even give any credence to what he's saying or
- he's black so they won't vote for him no matter whether they understand the message or not?
I guess I am asking whether most of the racist vote was self-admitted or self-denied.
Still, Jim Loewen calls The Ozarks and parts of the Tennessee Hills "Sundown Regions" -- which means that the entire region has a long history of violently removing black citizens, mostly inspired by economic competition but also by ignorance. I'm surprised that Fayetteville didn't go Democrat -- lots of young people there for one thing, and it's very diverse. It has a high Hispanic, Vietnamese, and Pacific Islander population. The African-American population, though, is pretty low.
My parents, I'm proud to say, voted for Obama. I don't know about my brother. I'm afraid to ask.