The last two dozen, or A kind of symmetry

What's wrong with this list? (And if that's too easy for you, provide the other wrong list.)

South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina South Carolina Mississippi Mississippi Texas Georgia Georgia Nebraska Mississippi Nebraska Mississippi Utah Utah Utah Utah Mississippi Utah Wyoming Utah

Adrian (EOE)

It seems to be the states that gave the highest % of the vote at each election to either the Democrats (first 12 1912-1956) or Republicans (last 12 1960-2004). Interesting to see how dramatically the South switched from solid Democrat to solid Republican.

Peter Smyth

Actually, the pivotal year was 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed. I believe that every single Southern Democrat in the Senate voted against it, while most of the Northerners (both Republican and Democrat) voted in favor. (Goldwater voted against largely on the grounds of the 'public accommodations' clause, which he felt would allow the government to meddle too much in the private affairs of business.)

The terms 'Red state' and 'Blue state' date from the aftermath of the last election. Before that the various media either switched colors every election or had blue=incumbent/red=challenger. Now the idiom overrides those proactices.

In a thread on the SDMB (link below) someone cited an article by David Brooks in the Dec 2001 Atlantic Monthly titled 'One Nation, Slightly Divisible: A Report from 'Red' and 'Blue' America' as the source of the Red/Blue state idiom.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php? t=282600

That article dates from a year after the election. It seems to me that the terms were in use before that, but memory is fallible...

Adrian Bailey:

True. See <http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/ redblue.php>.

I also note that Vermont was up to 1956 many the times the best state for the Republicans. In 2004 it was one of the strongest for the Democrats. Of course, the strongest stronghold for the Democrats is no state at all, but District of Columbia. What was it: 90% for Kerry?

Another interesting tidbit in the list is that since 1976, the strongest state for the Democrates is no less than four times the home state for the Democratic candidate.

[election trivia snipped]

Well, the fact that it's trivia and not a puzzle springs to mind. 'What have I got in my pocket?'

If there was a rec.puzzles.trivia, I would've posted there instead. Honest. Anyway, having checked the faq, I can't find any guidelines which exclude any particular type of puzzle. In fact 'trivia' is listed as one of the puzzle types at rec-puzzles.org.

And surely anyone would agree that the facts of the changing politography of the USA are less trivial than the fact that only one state has one syllable, or that the Fibonacci series is concealed in the names of the States in the order that they joined the Union, etc.

Lyndon Johnson was a tragic figure in the strict sense of the term. He could have been one of the greatest presidents in history if his incredible ability to get everyone to agree with him had not led to the disaster in Vietnam.