rural border counties voting "blue"
while i still maintain that giving the republicans the color red is ironic at best, i'll use the pundit colors so as not to confuse this point: using the "purple america" maps,

http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/ ,

it looks like some counties in Arizona went heavily dem (Pima, Santa Cruz, and Coconino counties), while only one went heavily rep (Graham.) Pima and Santa Cruz together comprise, physically, a majority of the total border. now, Pima's population base is heavily centered in the relatively progressive university city of Tucson, and Santa Cruz County is tiny, but don't stop here: the other Arizona Counties, again excepting Graham (rural SE Arizona) are all varying shades of purple, meaning relatively close elections returns. so how then do we get AZ going red? how skewed do the population bases have to be for Maricopa County (Phoenix) to fuck it all up like that? well, they did. which is problematic when the "blues" can't win major urban regions. (you know, as goes Manhattan, so goes New York state; as goes LA, so goes California...) i mean, what is Washington just gave up on King County?

my main interest in this is actually that rural border counties seem to have gone "blue" in otherwise red states: Imperial County, CA (even though CA is blue, it's worth noting, especially since San Diego County went red, like it usually does. i can tell you, Imperial County is no bastion of progressive activism.) then Pima and Santa Cruz counties in AZ, then Doña Ana Co. in New Mexico. now get this: in President Dumbfuck's "home" state of Texas ("home" is in quotes since hereally grew up more at Kennebunk, but who's counting/), Presidio County went blue, and then practically all of southern Texas went blue! (Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Starr, Hidalgo, Brooks, Kenedy, and Wilacy counties, it appears.) if you're wondering why Texas still did the stupid, ignorant thing overall, it's because, of these counties, only Hidalgo has a meaningful population base.

but my main question remains: what is happening in these border regions, traditionally thought of as bastions of conservativism and pro-shrub, bible belt crackers, that is casuing them to vote dem? what can be cultivated out there besides crops and cows?