The map…

I’m glad Obama won (mostly out of a “better than the alternative” viewpoint), however this screen grab of the election map from Fox News makes me depressed:

Why?

Because we are such a polarized nation. Look at the size of that red part – it’s hard in a way not to believe Romney didn’t win looking at it. He didn’t of course – the blue parts have more population (and while smaller, there are actually more blue states in play). Still it’s huge – from a physical standpoint, more than half of America really didn’t want the man.

But it’s also depressing because for a large percentage of the population in those red states, saying that they “didn’t want” Obama is an enormous understatement. For them this was a royal shafting, nearly the re-election of the “anti-christ” himself.

For sake of brevity I won’t comment on the mass-brainwashing that represents other than there’s plenty of reasons to hate Obama, but most of them aren’t the Republican talking points we’ve heard. Still these people, undoubtedly have a heartfelt belief that a huge disaster has just taken place. I literally feel for them – they may be misguided (or maybe I am) but they’re good people. They don’t vote Republican because they’re evil, they vote Republican because of the particular bus they got on when they were kids. So, yes, in their worldview a huge disaster has taken place.

Again, I feel for them and no, not out of some holier-than-thou pity, but because in this polarized environment it’s not really clear what the truth is and I could just as easily be on the other side of this.

That said, it is truly sad that neither side can see the truth of this, that Obama and Romney were mostly going to bring us the same sack full of crap, that yes, we are in the end lashing out out about the same issues (just in two completely opposite directions), and that yes, we’re all good people just the elites (on both sides) are using and misusing us to their own ends.

Finally, I should conclude this in a totally “inclusive” manner by noting even the elites just want the same things we do. They may be more driven or more damaged (certainly more damageing), but most of them (pretty much all of them, though some may be “sociopaths”) don’t have any desire to be evil either.

Of course, nor do wild animals, but no one would suggest to let them run free in our streets either.