Colorado: Purple State
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James Joyner | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 |
Stephen Green notes Colorado’s colorful political history.
I keep having to remind people that Colorado was never, ever a Red State.
We’re a purple state. Deep purple. “Deep Purple” as in the band, as in weird.
We like our Republicans to be small-government conservatives, and we like our Democrats deeply strange. It’s true. Look at the Democrats who came out of Colorado, and look at our presidential voting habits.
He takes us on an amusing tour.
Speaking of Deep Purple — which, incidentally, hails from England rather than Colorado — here’s a video from 1972:
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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You mean this Stephen Green?
Having lived in Colorado my whole life, I can attest to our political weirdness. Jared Diamond might chalk it up to geographic factors. Denver, a city politically diverse as any metropolis, is saddled by hippie-infested Boulder (home of Ward Churchill and other like-minded lefties) to the north and Focus-on-Your-Family conservatives down south in Colorado Springs (home of James Dobson, Michelle Malkin, and Ted Haggard). Factor in all the money living in the mountains, and you've got a recipe for a schizophrenic vibrant political landscape.
I'd take that over ideological homogeneity any day.
Speaking of Deep Purple
"Highway Star" is the best, though. Machine Head has both of those plus "Space Truckin". "My Woman From Tokyo" was on the next album. Perfect for that after-dinner trip to the drugstore or the grocery, you're out of the house and you can crank it up without the wife/SO saying "really, dear, you can't be serious".
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