Dem eye candy: Accurate visuals of 2012 presidential election results

Ever notice how red the country looks even after a veritable drubbing like the one we inflicted on the right wing this year?

Well, there is a way to fix all that. (Now that America's wang has finally announced its election results.)

Instead of the normal maps that show 49 states proportionate in terms of geography,

we can show those results using population as the metric instead.

Rocks, dirt and cattle do not vote.

We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states are rescaled according to their population. That is, states are drawn with size proportional not to their acreage but to the number of their inhabitants, states with more people appearing larger than states with fewer, regardless of their actual area on the ground. On such a map, for example, the state of Rhode Island, with its 1.1 million inhabitants, would appear about twice the size of Wyoming, which has half a million, even though Wyoming has 60 times the acreage of Rhode Island.

These maps are not only super cool to look at; they more accurately show that the country is not a "center right nation" as the Trad Med loves to claim, but a very left leaning nation. The blue and purple overwhelms the red in every such map you find.

More cool visuals below the divider doodle.