Howard Nelson wrote:
Ya know. I think David actually left. Not a bad troll through muddy waters
however.

IMO the election was a contest between the people pulling the wagon and the
people riding in the wagon. Luckily 51% of the people were pulling the wagon
so it will probably keep moving (perfect wagon with no losses to friction
etc.). Once 51% or greater are riding in the wagon then it will only move
downhill.

Howard


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What do you base this on? If we analyze the tax receipts of states who
voted for W and the ones that voted for Kerry, we'll see that those darn
Kerry supportin' states are sitting in the wagon waiting for us to pull
them along while generating the VAST MAJORITY of taxes!

I haven't done an analysis for this year yet (obviously, since the year
isn't over and the data isn't there yet) but I do have the numbers for
the 2000 contest. Since we had essentially the same red/blue map, this
is still telling. The bottom line?

Total tax receipts from states that voted for each candidate, in $millions:
Go $1,202,891,545
Bush: $873,151,976

SOURCE: 2000 IRS Data Book, Publication 55b. Also Chief Financial
Officer, Revenue Accounting, Office of Revenue Systems N:CFO:R.

Who's pulling the cart?

I have the excel sheet if you'd like to dig in yourself.

What amazes me is that the people in the red states simply haven't
realized how much they are shooting themselves in the foot by supporting
Bush's tax cuts. Most of that money stayed in the blue states!

Unless the people in the red states really think that the money is
distributed according to contribution, they should be careful what they
wish for when they want to "get the gubmint off our back". If the
gubmint does this, they're going to need to provide a hell of a lot more
faith based social services than they are right now. There will be a lot
of destitute farmers, and the suburbanites will NOT like the state of
their highway systems. The urban folks will have even crappier schools
and rising crime rates. But the gubmint won't be on their backs!

It irks me when I hear that this election was decided on values and
morals, suggesting that Bush has a monopoly on morality. In fact, I
argue that the majority of people in the blue states hold moral values
that make financing social programs that improve the poor's situation
more important than lower taxes. They hold moral values that recognize
honesty with the American people on issues of war and peace to be
important. They also hold moral values that place civil rights and due
process in our justice system to be sacred. All moral choices that the
president doesn't agree with me and about half the people that voted.

I am a left leaning centrist on social issues and consider myself to be
a fiscal conservative. When a Republican president irritates me this
much, I really am concerned for the country. After this election there
won't be much in terms of a moderating political force, and historically
that can lead to some pretty hairy situation.

-Aviv