George W. Bush won the 2004 Presidential election by a 51/48 percent margin. But the counties he carried cover 81 percent of the land area of the United States.

On the map (click here), Kerry carried the counties shaded dark; Bush carried the lighter-shaded counties. It is apparent that most of Kerry’s votes were concentrated in the large urban areas, while Bush swept the rural and suburban counties.

Bush even carried a large majority of the counties in most of the states that Kerry won. Only in New England and Hawaii did Kerry win a majority of counties.

Outside the urban areas, most of the counties won by Kerry had either college towns or large minority populations.

Back in 1787 Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural….When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt, as in Europe.”

The map (click here) is evidence that Jefferson was very farsighted. It is also a good argument for doing all we can to prevent Iredell County from becoming Mecklenburg Co. north.