There are only four U.S. states where white people are at least 80% of the population in every county: West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. These four are also among the five whitest states as a percentage of total state population, with Wyoming coming in second, behind West Virginia (97%) and just ahead of Vermont and New Hampshire (both 92%). But not all of Wyoming’s counties are so very white because within its state boundaries are relatively populous Indian Reservations. None of the other four have reservations, except for Maine, its have relatively small Native populations.
There are some other similarities among these four states. Three of them are in New England, and all four can be considered part of the broader Northeast, defined as north of the South and not west of the Appalachians. All four are also all substantially mountainous. And none of them has a major city.
However, there are also notable political and economic differences among these four states. West Virginia is one of the nation’s poorest states, and now one of the reddest. Vermont and New Hampshire have very strong state economies. But whereas Vermont is one of the nation’s most liberal states, to the point of sending Bernie Sanders to Congress for thirty-four years and counting, New Hampshire is a purple state with a strong libertarian, anti-tax tradition. Meanwhile, Maine is also purple and its economic standing varies from rather wealthy to quite poor.
Comparing and contrasting these four states can remind us of the limits that both race and wealth offer in predicting U.S. political preferences.
There are certainly patterns and trends to be found, some stronger than others, such as the propensity of African Americans, particularly women, to vote Democratic.
Three reasons.
First, this is an example of the system working. And that is very important because Donald Trump has spent the last eight years trying to make the system dysfunctional. He has sidestepped it, perverted it, ignored it, attacked it, and mutilated it to further his own selfish ends. His relentless efforts to erode U.S. democratic institutions have been dangerous, and too often the system he attacks seems incapable of defending itself has he exploits chinks in its armor of checks-and-balances. But yesterday the system held. While the official title of this case is State of New York, et al. v. Trump et al., the political reality since 2016 has been Trump v. U.S. democracy. And today democratic institutions held their own as. He was not convicted by pundits in the court of public opinion, or by politicians with axes to grind. He was convicted by a dozen honest citizens who listened to the evidence and decided, 34 times, that he's a felon.
Second, anything that de-normalizes Trump is important. In the long term, an authoritarian can destroy democracy by normalizing their anti-democratic and authoritarian behavior. They keep pushing the envelope. And each time no terrible consequences befall them, they push a little more. They keep pushing until too many citizens come to accept their anti-democratic and authoritarian actions as normal. Then a democracy is in a position to crumble. Thus, Trump's conviction is important because it makes it harder for people to fall into the false-equivalence trap. It makes it harder for them to say, Oh well, Trump's a crook, but they're all crooks. Even if all or most politicians are crooked (for argument's sake, let's say that's true), it's important to recognize that there are different levels of crookedness. We may not like that many politicians engage in "regular" corruption (eg. prote