Robert David Sullivan

14 maps on how the Democrats and Republicans carved up America

My newest project at America magazine details when each county in the U.S. adopted its current political hue.

From the intro:

If this year’s presidential election is at all competitive, we will see the major candidates zero in on a handful of “battleground” states and ignore most of the United States. The red-versus-blue electoral map has changed little since achieving iconic status in 2000; all but 10 states have repeated their choice of party three times. A slight majority of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States have voted the same way over the past seven elections; at the county level, the current red-versus-blue map was mostly written by 1988, when the first president Bush defeated Michael Dukakis.

Mitt Romney won 2,090 counties by at least 10 points, and President Obama won 468 counties (mostly larger and more urban) by at least 10 points—leaving 557 counties that could be considered “purple” by the most generous definition. It would take a landslide this fall to shake many of the counties out of their decades-old voting habits. The maps below illustrate how the current political map has evolved over the past century, showing when each country slipped into the groove it inhabited in 2012. 

See the entire project here.

Why You Will Be Single With the Wrong Person

“IT’S one of the things we are most afraid might happen to us. We go to great lengths to avoid it. And yet we do it all the same: We marry the wrong person.”—Alain de Botton, “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person,” New York Times, May 28, 2016.

But it’s OK, says de Botton: “We mustn’t abandon him or her, only the founding Romantic idea upon which the Western understanding of marriage has been based the last 250 years: that a perfect being exists who can meet all our needs and satisfy our every yearning.”

I don’t mind being single per se, but must I be single with myself?

I know I can’t meet all my needs and satisfy my every yearning. That’s asking too much of myself. But a kind word and an unexpected squeeze of the shoulder would be nice now and then. I’ve lived with myself long enough to know when I simply need to hear, “I’ve got this, babe,” but instead I get angry and resentful at my silence, muttering, “What am I mad about this time?”

I secretly want to be surprised with breakfast in bed. Am I so out of sync with myself that I have to ask for it?

I always remember my birthday, but do I remember my birthday? Never. All I ever get from myself is a few crisp $20 bills, a day late, to spend on “anything I want.” I spend it on toilet paper and other household goods just to spite myself.

The sex is boring. I suggest spicing things up by bringing another person into the mix, but in the end I’m always up against cold feet. Is it jealousy, insecurity? Perhaps. I’m no great prize, but there have been plenty of prospects who have headed for the door when they finally meet myself.

I don’t want to give up yet. Perhaps a trip with myself is the answer, if I can think of a vacation itinerary that isn’t just about what I want. My chief concern is the cost: When things go south, I always end up in a separate room from myself. That kind of relationship just isn’t sustainable on a single income.