Red vs. Blue Redux

If you've been following the discussion here at Purple Nation you know that what explains our political divide is a little bit of ideology based on a whole lot of differences rooted in urban, rural, and suburban lifestyle preferences. The real divide is exaggerated by the party platforms (as Democrats appeal to urbanites and Republicans appeal to ruralites and suburbanites), and all this gets loudly amplified by the media.

In a previous post I showed how the data on 2008 Democratic primary voting reveals the same red-blue dynamic as the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Now with the conventions behind us we can see how the parties and media are splitting into red-blue tribes and escalating the race along those lines. Obama and McCain can only ride this wave, they're helpless to contain it. I expect we'll have another red-blue election and four more years agonizing over it. I wonder if the experience will be traumatic enough to change our patterns of behavior.