Originally posted by Clark Addison
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I thought this was interesting. This map shows 2008 presidential election results by county in the south. Note the blue (Democratic) band that moves through several Southern states:
This election was not unique. The area in this band is consistently more Democratic than the surrounding areas. So, why is there a band of blue counties that snake through the south? The non-intuitive answer is that this was the coastline of a shallow sea that has not existed in almost 100 million years.
What does an ancient sea have to do with politics today? On this shore was deposited the remains of countless plankton (planktons?), making the soil more fertile than the surrounding areas. More fertile soil meant more agriculture. More agriculture meant more slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. More slaves meant larger black populations in these areas today. And that is why we can see the remains of a 100 million year old sea in today's election results.
At least that is what this article asserts. I am not familiar with the political analysis reputation of "Deep Sea News", but it is pretty interesting.
http://deepseanews.com/2012/06/how-p...old-coastline/
This election was not unique. The area in this band is consistently more Democratic than the surrounding areas. So, why is there a band of blue counties that snake through the south? The non-intuitive answer is that this was the coastline of a shallow sea that has not existed in almost 100 million years.
What does an ancient sea have to do with politics today? On this shore was deposited the remains of countless plankton (planktons?), making the soil more fertile than the surrounding areas. More fertile soil meant more agriculture. More agriculture meant more slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. More slaves meant larger black populations in these areas today. And that is why we can see the remains of a 100 million year old sea in today's election results.
At least that is what this article asserts. I am not familiar with the political analysis reputation of "Deep Sea News", but it is pretty interesting.
http://deepseanews.com/2012/06/how-p...old-coastline/
I did some clicking around and Professor Steven Dutch, whose work this article is based on, is just pure gold. He's written so. Many. Articles. I included a link to his homepage. The "science, pseudoscience, and irrationalism" link is particularly fun.
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/
As for his commentary on the coastline and its electoral implications, I'll just leave this quote here:
"The Coastal plain rocks slope gently seaward toward the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, a structure called a homocline. I therefore propose to call the arc of pro-Democratic counties, which is reflected in a variety of demographic trends, the Cretaceous Homoclinal Arc of Demography, which can be abbreviated by an acronym that more than anything else symbolizes the election of 2000: CHAD."
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/
As for his commentary on the coastline and its electoral implications, I'll just leave this quote here:
"The Coastal plain rocks slope gently seaward toward the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, a structure called a homocline. I therefore propose to call the arc of pro-Democratic counties, which is reflected in a variety of demographic trends, the Cretaceous Homoclinal Arc of Demography, which can be abbreviated by an acronym that more than anything else symbolizes the election of 2000: CHAD."
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