No great mystery there, but let's explore deeper:
Keep looking at that map for second, and lets discuss the most divisive issues of our time:
Health care reform is facing constant attack from state legislatures and courts.
Wisconsin is nearing a shut-down over public workers right to collective bargaining.
In my state, people can be fired or evicted for appearing queer. (please support these people) (and not these douchebags,these assholes really [say it with me now] POKE MY BADGER)
The the right of women to prosecute rape, (this article is a bit more cutting) avoid unwanted pregnancy, to information regarding sexual health, or even to bear the pain of miscarriage privately is under constant and violent threat.
It is preposterous to suggest that these are simple issues, but conservatives are seeking to apply simple principles to them. If we can find these principles out, perhaps we can better understand and convince our conservative friends.
If you're a white, middle-class, christian male in America, things are pretty good for you. You orgasm twice as often as your wife or girlfriend, you'll get laid at least once a week into your retirement years, you'll have enough wealth to be secure, your parents retirement is handled by social security and medicare, and your children are educated for free, and will likely get into college, which you can afford because you probably went to college. You have two cars, so a breakdown isn't that bad, and you probably have some menial amount of health coverage so you don't worry too much about catastrophic health problem. All you have to do is make it to work, get paid regularly, and spend your money responsibly. The simple and easy American dream.
So what makes your life complex? Prices, for one thing. Not knowing, from day to day, how much food and fuel will cost are major concerns. Why? Look at the map again, especially, for example, some place like Texas, in deep republican territory. Texas hasn't voted for a democratic President since the southern, agricultural Carter (and he only won by 130k out of 4m voters). What do we see? All red except for the blue border and three blue spots: Houston, DFW, and Austin.
My dad is from Texas, I consider it my home turf a little bit. This is the house his family grew up in, except that it isn't the house he grew up in. He was about 16 when they moved there, when the price of grain was good enough for them to afford to upgrade from living out here. It's not far, actually about 13 miles, but in a combine, there is no such thing as "not far" when considering time and fuel. Dad would call me out, thought, because he's one of those people who is a stickler for facts. He would remind me that you would never drive the combines to the house in town, because there's no place to park, duh!
He would be correct, but you do have to move the grain somewhere. Big trucks and tractors all eat up fuel, not to mention the incredible amount of driving required to maintain miles of irrigation pipes (the other consequence of too much irrigation is too many anecdotes with too little entertainment value...I'm looking at you, dad.). So farming families are dependent on inelastic commodities like grain and gas, not to mention that rural areas are less likely to have a national-chain grocer nearby. National chain grocers can keep the price of food steady with larger markets to trade in, lowering prices and flattening price fluctuations.
It's also worth noting that my father is the oldest male of 7 siblings. The only older sibling is my Aunt Judy, a double-doctorate dean at the University of Texas (I'm proud of her, so I brag). Rural families are larger, so food is, again, a very important part of the family budget, and fluctuations are exaggerated by the volume needed to feed a large family as opposed to just a married couple. The pressure to provide wealth is intense, and that wealth is under far more threat that of a smaller, urban family who knows that a burger will always be a dollar.
Conservative Value #1: You should only get what you earn. Poverty is the product of laziness or irresponsibility, and is no ones fault but your own.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the plight of the American farmer, we've heard it before. What does that have to do with simplicity or conservatism? Everything. Another word for simplicity is homogeneity, that things are the same or similar. Homogenized milk? It has the same fat content and distribution to a nearly molecular level. If we look at areas of the country with low population density but large family sizes, we see that there is little diversity. let me explain further:
I LOVE LUCKY CHARMS! Sure, it has more sugar per serving than a buttered piece of chocolate-bacon (OMG totally copyrighted, I'm gonna be rich) but it's part of a balanced breakfast, so buzz off and leave me my magical chunks of delicious. I have a pet peeve. The cereal isn't my pet peeve, but the math assignment I have to do mid-bowl is. I love lucky charms best when there is the perfect ratio of marshmallow to oat pieces. I like 2 marshmallows in a full spoon of oats. This is great for like... half a bowl. Then I start doing the math, and I realize that if I want to finish the bowl on a good note, I need to adjust my strategy so I can spread the marshmallows out evenly over the last few bites.
My second favorite cereal is frosted flakes. There are no marshmallows in frosted flakes and thus, no math. Frosted flakes are a more simple cereal than lucky charms because they are homogeneous, just those delightful coated flakes. No math, no stress, just simple sugar bliss. Frosted flakes are more simple that lucky charms.
Ok, so what we should find is that some parts of Texas are homogeneous like frosted flakes, and some parts of Texas are mixed up like lucky charms, and that the frosted flakes parts are more conservative and the lucky charms parts are more liberal (as a crude aside, my lucky charm parts are VERY liberal ;) )
Lets compare these two maps:
I know they aren't entirely contemporary, but they are what I could find. 2000 was the most recent census with available data, and GW Bush ran in 2000 and 2004, so a map of that election would have been skewed by home-town hero favoritism.
I think the trends speak for themselves. Racial diversity means democratic victories. But, you could argue that racial diversity supports a black victory for Obama and not necessarily liberal one. It's a fair argument, and supported by this map:
It's not a great image, but it shows the democratic primary results between Hillary Clinton and Obama in Texas, supporting that Texas democrats outside of the urban areas were less willing to vote for Obama. The trend is more noisy; notice that one of the border counties went slightly for Obama, and a number of the ones further south went for Clinton strongly. I don't think the trend is as clear, but it doesn't answer the relevant question anyway. Texas democrats may have preferred a white woman to black man, sure, but do democratic votes still center around the diverse areas when both candidates are the same gender and race?
Yes, they do. This is 1996, the Bill Clinton/Bob Dole race.
This also explains some of the noise from the primary map a bit ago. Counties that went for Mr. Clinton strongly in 1996 tended to go strongly for Mrs. Clinton in 2008. Good ole' fashioned name recognition.
Ok, so racial diversity produces liberal votes. We all knew that. What does that have to do with simplicity? In the same way that frosted flakes don't require me to consider how many marshmallows I should eat with my next spoonful, low density urban areas wouldn't require me to deal with people much different than me. I can develop politics and moralities that never have to assimilate anyone very different than me. Competition is is for the good of my family, who is my main community.
Conservative Value #2: The more uniform the people, the more united the people. Diversity is competition.
Let's look again at the issues that are dividing our country again, and see how the conservative position on them is consistent with simplicity.
Health Care Reform: Health insurance is a way of preparing for the unforeseen. If you don't have it, you're irresponsible. If you can't afford it, you are lazy. I should not be burdened with caring for the poor and lazy. My fate is mine, and theirs is theirs. If a drug company can get the price they ask for, they should be allowed to charge that.
Abortion and reproductive rights/education: The simplest answer is the best answer, so life begins at conception (HB1 Article 15, Section A, subsection 4). Unwanted pregnancy is the product of irresponsibility. Women who don't want to have children are different, so they weaken America, so they shouldn't be given to tools to prevent pregnancy.
The right to collective bargaining: If any worker wants to earn more, they should work harder or get a new job. Union wages and benefits raise the prices of products for no reason other than to allow people to be lazy and still get paid.
Gay rights: Gay people are different, so they weaken America. Plus, they freak us out a bit. Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Notice how necessary it is to draw broad swathes of black and white to maintain simplicity. Conservatives have a simpler binary platform of right/wrong, black/white, American/unamerican. This is so strong that the only president who's citizenship we've ever questioned is the only one we call black. He is different, so he must not be one of us.
Notice, also, that seeing shades of gray isn't always a benefit. Binary communication is incredibly simple, all one or zero, always clear, concise, and easy to understand. No wonder the democrats never agree on anything: we can't even talk without requiring letters, words, and grammar!
