[lbo-talk] Where Do Leftists Live in the USA?

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Nov 1 10:19:38 PST 2004


The majority of American voters -- about 73% of them -- live in one-party states: only "27 percent of Americans live in TV markets where campaign ads are airing," i.e., in the battleground states, according to Marc Fisher ("No Ads, No Visits, No Contest," October 21, 2004, p. B1, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50120-2004Oct20.html>).

Leftists (of whatever variety) are even more disproportionately concentrated in one-party states than Americans in general are. Moreover, most leftists live in *left-leaning urban areas* like New York City, Chicago, and the Bay Area, most often in *states dominated by the Democratic Party* like New York, California, and Illinois.

That means that most leftists should prioritize social movements over electoral politics even in election years, because they live in areas where their votes do not easily make or break electoral fortunes of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the presidential election, and, if they do get involved in electoral politics, they should be building the Green Party (or any other party on the left that they choose to support) against the Democratic Party establishment at both the local and national levels. -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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