A More Visually Accurate Picture of the “Red-Blue” Polarization in the U.S.
| revcom.us
Letter from a reader:
Even though Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential elections, and secured seven million votes more than Donald Trump, mainstream media continues to show a “Red-Blue” map of the U.S. by county that is highly distorted. It shows a sea of Red for the Republican-fascists, with small oases of Blue, especially in the urban and suburban areas.
Lara Trump used a similar map in 2019 to demonstrate support for Trump, with the challenge, “Impeach This!” A Belgian designer, Karim Douïeb, took up the challenge to creatively refute and depict a much more visually accurate picture of the relative support for Republican-fascists and the Democrats—by population. He created a similar map after the 2020 presidential election. As seen below, it portrays a whole different picture than the ones that the media inundates people with, stemming from the fact that large areas of the country don’t have much of a population. I thought it important to share with revcom.us readers, as it is more visually accurate, and helps break the false impression of fascist encirclement and domination that the more mainstream maps may convey. This has potential strategic implications for revolution in this country.
Latest update with the typo fixed for those interested. pic.twitter.com/kLvms91wA3
— Karim Douïeb (@karim_douieb) November 11, 2020
At the same time, what is more decisive and scientifically underlying is what Bob Avakian states in his New Year’s Statement: A New Year, The Urgent Need For A Radically New World—For The Emancipation Of All Humanity:
Even as it is critically important that the voting in this election has resulted in a decisive defeat for the Trump/Pence regime and its attempts to more fully consolidate fascist rule, this must not be allowed to obscure this crucial truth: The polarization, between Democrats and Republicans, as expressed through the electoral process in this country, involves contention over how to uphold and pursue the interests of the capitalist-imperialist system and rule by the capitalist class. It does not represent the fundamental divisions in society and the world, nor the fundamental interests of the masses of people, in this country and in the world as a whole. Nor can the profound problems confronting humanity be solved—in fact, they can only get worse—within the confines of this murderously oppressive and exploitative system and the chaos and destruction it will continue to unleash on a massive scale, so long as it continues to dominate the world.
This is fact-based, scientifically-established truth. Ignoring, denying, or trying to pursue individual escape from this reality will only make things worse and hasten disaster.