Burnt Orange Report

Byron, don't perpetuate this crap! Here's the email I sent to Ms. Korblut in response to this quiz.

Dear Ms. Kornblut,

I just took your Red or Blue Quiz on Slate, and I was
disgusted. These types of shallow red/blue state
analyses perpetuate awful stereotypes that are
extremely frustrating to those people who oppose the
popular politics in their region. I have lived in
deep red states for about 7 years, and my wife has
lived in red states her entire life. Both of us
naturally scored well in the pink. We own a ride
mower, and we think our 15-month old son looks cute in
overalls without a shirt underneath. However, we
would have to be blind and stupid to ignore the
obvious fact that George W. Bush and the Republican
Party is unabashedly shifting the tax burden onto the
middle and lower classes. Today, one out of six
children born in U.S. has dangerous levels of mercury,
and George W. Bush wants to rollback the mercury
regulations in the Clean Air Act. The debt per capita
in the U.S. is about $24,000. Is the major media
talking about this? A little, but here’s this
red/blue state quiz showing us that people who know
the Eighth Commandment vote Republican. Maybe if you
know the Eighth Commandment, you should vote
Republican too? Well, I know the Eighth Commandment,
and I also know the Ninth Commandment, and George W.
Bush breaks the Ninth Commandment on daily basis.

Do you know how hard it is to tell people that we are
voting for the Democrats? Do you know how annoying it
is to have Republican friends, who are voting against
their best interests, tell you, “Did you hear that John
Kerry pays $1000 for his hair cuts?” or “I can’t put
my finger on why I don’t like John Kerry, I just
don’t.” or “The Bush tax cuts really help the lower
income folk” or “Big government just screws up
everything!” Argh! Thomas Frank’s new book “What's
the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the
Heart of America” reveals how people vote against
their economic best interest. If you interested in
finding out why this is happening, you should start by
looking in the mirror. These people are being
mislead, and it’s the media's responsibility to make
sure they know and UNDERSTAND the consequences of the
issues. Unfortunately, you’ve simplified them down to
whether you know Dale Earnhardt’s number.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXXX
Arlington, TX

Yes this quiz is pointless. Just because you know who lee Greenwood is does not make you red. Plenty of blue people shop at Wal-mart.

I'd have to agree with you all that I found the quiz to be a bit silly. I actually found myself more sure of a lot of the "red" questions, which surprised me a little bit. I think it played to the stereotypes of Democrat / Republican voters, but I'm not sure if I think it was particularly unfair in doing so. Still, I think that it's a poor indicator of voting. Just becuase I may know some "Red" stuff, doesn's make me a swing voter.

By the way, I had to do some searching to find Anne Kornblut's email address. So if you are like me, and want to give her a good talking to, here's her email address:

akornblut@globe.com

This IS crap.

But for what it's worth, I scored as follows:

"It's time to get out of the sun. You're looking a little red."

Whuh? Better dead than red! Tahee. :-D

I agree that the test is silly, but on a technical level, I could not scroll down the scantron answer portion to answer the last ca. 7 questions. I checked out the answers, and my responses would have made by 10 points bluer, and I was in the blue already. (Even though this quiz is crap, playing along within the parameters of the quiz, I think it was a mistake the way they "graded" the Dr. Laura Schlessinger familiarity question. A lot of progressives know who she is based on the enormous mnovement within the progressive movement to write letters to stations that promote her vitriol. It is as if simply knowing who Rush Limbaugh is makes you conservative.)