commentaries

Well written and as a student of American history I appreciate the insights. I do wonder if Billy Graham's ads won enough votes in his native North Carolina to make a difference there.

From the article: "Republicans ignore these developments -- and the true regional map -- at their peril." And yet Republicans have convinced themselves that they need only soften their language on one issue--immigration--and that will compensate for the move toward the "we built this together for the common good" philosophy and away from the "I built this myself; the rest of you are on your own" philosophy.

Gee, Colin, is your book anything like "The Nine Nations of North America", written over 20 years ago by Joel Garreau?

The author focuses on the origins of these regions, but the country has evolved rapidly along the way. Add the millions of recent immigrants from China, Vietnam, Africa, Mexico, Bosnia, Central America, etc. and these segments along with their "micro-cultures" will continue to blur.

I thought the same thing, regionguy. Old wine with a few new flavors tossed in.

Let us just cut it down the middle. Obaminomics on one side. Hard working, business owners on the other. Liberals, no military, just utopia. Conservaties, guns God, and hard work. You get what you work for.

And besides the Nine and the Eleven, we have The Two - the plantation model of the south where working harder in old soil does not bring more return, the total wealth is fixed so that taking from other people is the only avenue of gaining wealth, your loss is my win, and the social structure is arranged for the wealth holders to keep - so aligning with the strong leader and bound group, even when the leader exploits you, aids survival, and emotional manipulation is a valuable skill in a leader; and the community model of the north, where the soil and social structure is such that the harder you work the more wealth you get, where helping your neighbor helps assure your own survival (e.g., should you break your leg, the community helps until you are able again), win-win is the respected outcome, leaders value mutual acceptance, and winter is the great equalizer and reminder of mutual dependence... The two was popular in the late 60s and 70s, used to explain the major ethic differences between the larger sections of the country.

carlady50: "Let us just cut it down the middle. Obaminomics on one side. Hard working, business owners on the other. Liberals, no military, just utopia. Conservaties, guns God, and hard work. You get what you work for." How about the blue states in the last two elections on one side (those which pay in much more than they get back from the federal government) and the red states on the other? The red state who voted for McCain and Rmoney are the ones who for every $1.00 they pay in, get back $1.25 from the feds. (They're actually the 47% that Willard disdains). Within three years, the red states will be begging to go back to their sweet deal.

As President Obama has said,we are the United States of America not red or blue states.Even in Minnesota there are regional differences.Southwestern Minnesota is very different from the Iron Range but they are part of the same state.I consider myself fortunate that I have been able to get out of the suburban Twin Cities comfort zone and see other areas of the country.When I went through boot camp at Great Lakes it was my introduction to people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.It was my first exposure to hominy grits.I didn't know what they were.Some Americans have never left their comfort zone.They hate people that are not like them.

The country is divided by two groups: Those that earn what they want and those that think they deserve what the others earn. Plain and simple.