I am, as you know, a fan of maps. But these "maps," produced by the ever more data visualizing New York Times, make me angry.
It's the same anger I have felt at the red and blue maps usually used for presidential elections (which at least have the justification that they report Electoral College votes). Most of America is purple - and if we're less purple (many regions closer to red or to blue) than we have been,
that makes even stronger the case that we mustn't abandon those who voted like us in areas where they are outnumbered. But of course we owe the effort of solidarity also to those who didn't vote as we did, and from that perspective anything which fuels secessionist fantasies is ill advised. (Secessionist fantasies are part of American heritage.) We're stuck with each other and huddling together will only make us more dangerous to each other - and ultimately to the American project.
This map isn't as pretty or as witty as the Times' Clinton archipelago - it looks like something violently contorting - but it's who we are.
