Thursday, March 18, 2021

Political Segregation in America

The New York Times has mapped out the sharp political divide which exists in many American cities. Using data of party registrations the NYT shows how a partisan divide splits many cities in two, with many voters living in cities segregated along political lines.

In A Close-Up Picture of Partisan Segregation, Among 180 Million Voters the NYT uses a series of static maps to show where voters support the Republican and Democratic parties in major U.S. cities. These maps reveal how Democrats and Republicans live separated from each other, often in completely separate neighborhoods. The NYT analysis shows that even in neighborhoods with both Republican and Democratic supporters people still tend to live close to people who vote the same way as them.  

The NYT discusses the effect that this segregation has on American life, particularly at how segregated neighborhoods can lead to the demonizing of those with opposing political views. If you want to explore the levels of political segregation in your state then you can refer to Kenneth Field's interactive map of the US Presidential Election 2020. This interactive map visualizes 160 million voters as colored dots. The blue dots show Democratic voters and the red dots show Republican voters.

It is important to note that on Kenneth's map voters are randomly distributed within county areas so it won't show the political divide within individual neighborhoods. However the map does show the divide between different counties and how voters are divided within individual states. 

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