I've been spending happy time with these maps of the presidential election outcome, courtesy of The New York Times. Though it will not be reported on CNN, it pleases me to know that Barack Obama carried Watonwan County, in south central Minnesota, by 2562-2526. My mother grew up on a farm in that rural county of Scandinavians and Germans. The local culture is sufficiently conservative for both dancing and investing in the stock market to be regarded as markers of moral turpitude. For my relatives, the country Lutheran church is the center of social life, and I can tell you that, when there is a funeral, the church ladies are in competition with each other to contribute the best dishes to the post-burial luncheon. My grandpa used the word "nigger" without a trace of rancor. I'm reasonably sure he would have been surprised to learn it was a slur. He didn't know anyone who called them anything else.
Grandpa's dead, and I haven't been in Watonwan County lately, but last time I was I noticed brown faces on the streets of St. James, the county seat, about nine miles south of grandpa's farm. I'm guessing Obama owes his 36-vote local margin to these Mexican immigrants who may first have come to the county to join a relative or acquaintance who landed there after following the harvest north. If the only growing part of the local population is Democrat-favoring Hispanics, that would be one of the few "trendy" things about Watonwan County. Four years ago, in New Mexico, Hispanics were 32 percent of the electorate, and they gave 56 percent of their votes to John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president, who nevertheless lost the state to George W. Bush by one percentage point. This year in New Mexico Hispanics were 41 percent of the electorate and they gave 69 percent of their votes to Barack Obama, who carried the state by 15 points. The story is similar in other growing and formerly red states: Nevada (Obama won it by 12 after Kerry lost it by 3), Colorado (Obama won it by 8 after Kerry lost it by 5), and Florida (Obama won it by 2 after Kerry lost it by 5).
It's doubtful that a non-Arizonan could have held that state's ten electoral votes for the Republicans this year. And if Watonwan County is blue, can Texas be far behind?
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