Reagan in the Blue States and Red States

[bluestateguy]

I spent a couple of hours working on this and crunching numbers.I wanted to see how well Reagan polled in what we now call the Blue States verses his performance in the Red States in 1984. His performance was a bit better in the Red States, but he still won a solid majority in the Blue States too.


Total Votes (1984)

Reagan 58.77%
Mondale 40.56%
Others .67%

Red States (for Bush in 2000)

Reagan 62.48%
Mondale 36.89%
Others .62%

Blue States (for Gore in 2000)

Reagan 55.54%
Mondale 43.75%
Others .71%

So while Reagan had a lot of appeal in the Blue and Red states, the results also reveal a potential chasm developing between these two regions of the nation.

[DaveSZ]

1. Reagan completely changed the political landscape

Love him or hate him.

[DenverDem]

2. raygun legitimized demagoguery.

You'll never lose an American election by pandering to the citizenry's innate bigotry and fear.

[Burma Jones]

3. The Republicans did it to Al Smith in 1928

The Republicans have been the party of bigotry and fear since the late 19th century. This is why no Repunblican Administration has actually done anything great for this nation.

Even Reagan's greatest accomplishment, the end of the Cold War, was the culmination of the Truman Doctrine and was brought about by decades of competition with the west. Reagan delivered his pre-written lines well and was there when Gorbachev administered the coup de grace to Soviet Communism.

[Yupster]

4. But you're looking at 1984

which was a landslide. Every state but Minnesota voted for Reagan in 84.

To get more reasonable numbers look at 1980 where there was at least a race.

BTW, back then the Republica states were the blue states. I remember one of the anchors saying the electoral map looked like a suburban swimming pool on election night.