October 16, 2006--Beyond the Blue Horizon
The last election was supposed to have been decided because Republicans were able to bring out their base by talking about “values.” John Kerry lost, pundits claimed, because the Evangelical minions were able to mobilize their voters by appealing to them around issues such as prayer in schools (in favor of it), flag burning (against), pornography (against), gay marriage (against), and heterosexual marriage (a sacrament).
Never mind that Kerry pathetically allowed himself to be Swift-Boated, and if he had carried Ohio he would today be our president. Also ignore the fact that more folks from the Red States click on pornography Websites than those of us who live in Sodom on the Hudson.
And now we have something else to ignore—yesterday, the NY Times reported that for the first time in US history more couples living together are not married than married: only 49.7 percent of couples are now living in blissful wedlock, down from 52 percent five years ago. (Article linked below.)
For sure, when looking at some of the inner details of the couples report from the U.S. Census Bureau, one finds that there are more gay couples in San Francisco than anywhere else; that only 26 percent of couples living in Manhattan are married (has anyone taken a look at the cost of apartments recently?); and, no surprise, the percentage of married couples is highest in the Mormon state of Utah—not including three or four or twelve person marriages.
But what interests me is closer to the data about where people are most likely to download X-rated material—more in Kansas than New York City. Thus, where did the survey find the largest increase in the growth of gay couples living together? In the rural Midwest where male-male couples increased by an astonishing 77 percent since the year 2000!
After the last presidential election we all became familiar with the maps of the U.S. that showed the Democrat blue, coastal states bracketing the red Republican states in the middle of the country. That seemed to make intuitive sense. But then when analysts took a closer look, and produced red-blue maps county-by-county, those revealed that in the bluest of blue states such as New York and California, if looked at in square-miles terms, overwhelmingly these states were also red, with many, many red counties surrounding high-population, much smaller pockets of blue cities.
But now, if we take a closer look at the couples-data, particularly at the map the Times included with its article, we find that not only is rural-red-state America becoming gayer, but “conservative” states such as Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina are experiencing a much more rapid increase in the number of unmarried couples than “liberal” Washington and California and Massachusetts.
As someone is quoted in the Times as saying, “This would seem to close the book on the Ozzie and Harriet era.” Maybe this also signals the beginning of the end of the era of Carl Rove??
Never mind that Kerry pathetically allowed himself to be Swift-Boated, and if he had carried Ohio he would today be our president. Also ignore the fact that more folks from the Red States click on pornography Websites than those of us who live in Sodom on the Hudson.
And now we have something else to ignore—yesterday, the NY Times reported that for the first time in US history more couples living together are not married than married: only 49.7 percent of couples are now living in blissful wedlock, down from 52 percent five years ago. (Article linked below.)
For sure, when looking at some of the inner details of the couples report from the U.S. Census Bureau, one finds that there are more gay couples in San Francisco than anywhere else; that only 26 percent of couples living in Manhattan are married (has anyone taken a look at the cost of apartments recently?); and, no surprise, the percentage of married couples is highest in the Mormon state of Utah—not including three or four or twelve person marriages.
But what interests me is closer to the data about where people are most likely to download X-rated material—more in Kansas than New York City. Thus, where did the survey find the largest increase in the growth of gay couples living together? In the rural Midwest where male-male couples increased by an astonishing 77 percent since the year 2000!
After the last presidential election we all became familiar with the maps of the U.S. that showed the Democrat blue, coastal states bracketing the red Republican states in the middle of the country. That seemed to make intuitive sense. But then when analysts took a closer look, and produced red-blue maps county-by-county, those revealed that in the bluest of blue states such as New York and California, if looked at in square-miles terms, overwhelmingly these states were also red, with many, many red counties surrounding high-population, much smaller pockets of blue cities.
But now, if we take a closer look at the couples-data, particularly at the map the Times included with its article, we find that not only is rural-red-state America becoming gayer, but “conservative” states such as Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina are experiencing a much more rapid increase in the number of unmarried couples than “liberal” Washington and California and Massachusetts.
As someone is quoted in the Times as saying, “This would seem to close the book on the Ozzie and Harriet era.” Maybe this also signals the beginning of the end of the era of Carl Rove??
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:07 AM
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