Another response from MN...

Asked another good friend from MN for his assessment of the post-election mood there. Here is his reply:

Subject: RE: e-mail/blog
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:39:14 -0800
From: P-diddy
To: Me

S- thanks for sending the info along and I have jumped on the blog a couple times in the last week (checked out Ina's as well per your tip).

The mood here is mixed. I think people are tying to take solace in
the fact that the DFL gained 14 seats in the state legislature on
11/2. Gives folks hope on the local level and helps them completely
ignore how depressing the bigger picture is.

75% of the city of St. Paul voted for Kerry (% is similar in MPLS).
It is the suburban ring and rural folks that have somehow been
convinced that voting Republican is going to save their soul. Their
belief that W and his posse's moral values are a better choice than my
kid's future, is what is the most disturbing. They fear gay marriage
and other perceived social ills to such a degree that they are willing
to sell out the environment, burn all diplomatic bridges and create a
supreme court that will merge the church and state.

I agree that it comes down to how do we educate/re-educate. There was
a time in this country that you could find someone who lived outside
of city who harbored a progressive thought or two. Now once you leave
the city, hit the suburbs and slowly blend it rural landscape you are
in a red electoral sea. It is one thing to have a disagreement with
someone who believes in fiscally conservative policies, but quite a
different thing to be facing half a nation who think that Jesus is
telling them to act like an idiot.

It will be interesting to see how motivated folks on my side of the
aisle are. Everyone seemed outraged on 11/3, but emotions are often
fleeting. I hope not.

Good words there.

Though my man goes a little far in implying that there are no progressive folk outside the cities anymore. And I don't mean the isolated progressive souls out there lost in a red wilderness. One of the interesting things that jumped out at me from the maps showing county-by-county results was that the Iron Range looks to be maintaining its DFL roots.

Go here, and scroll down to "Election results by county"--doesn't northern MN stand out? Or go here. (And contrast that with the scary maps of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, which hardly had a county go blue among them.)

Part of the raison d'etre of Steadyblogging is to get your views, thoughts, and reactions on all this, and to share them amongst us. So send me e-mail and I'll put them up like the above...or you can always use the Comments feature.