Election 2020: Our Geographic and Cultural Divide

As of the moment of this writing, Jay Inslee is the clear re-election winner of the race for governor, and Joe Biden is the declared winner of the presidential race. There are striking and very telling similarities in each of the results which shed some light on the fundamental reasons for our social and political divide.

Inslee’s credentials as a candidate for governor were: a degree from the University of Washington, and a law degree; four years in our state House of Representatives; two years as a representative for central Washington in the U.S. House; two years as a representative in the U.S. House representing parts of western Washington; several years as a regional director for a federal agency; and two prior terms as governor of Washington.

Loren Culp’s credentials as a candidate were: years spent in the army, leaving as a sergeant; self-employment as a small business owner; and 10 years as the police chief, and only police officer, of Republic, Washington, population around 1,000.

Inslee had a detailed platform for his campaign, including continuing efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Culp’s only stated intent included the reduction of taxes and regulations, refusal to enforce any laws regulating guns, and the cancelation of the COVID-19 management mandates ordered by Inslee.

Inslee has been re-elected with 57.3 % of the vote, 564,00 more votes than Culp, and by winning only nine of 39 counties, only one of which was in eastern Washington. Culp has refused to concede defeat, stating that something is “fishy,” even though he does concede that he has no “concrete evidence.”

On the national level, in 2016 Donald Trump ran for president on a promise to “Make America Great Again” and to “drain the swamp” of corruption in the operation of the federal government. Unique to any prior candidate, he had no prior experience in government or in the military. He won election with less than a majority of the vote.

In the 2020 presidential election, at a time of a raging COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest rate of infection yet, Trump had no formal campaign platform, and focused only on minimizing the pandemic and re-opening the economy. During his four years in office his administration might have been the most corrupt and ineffectual of any in history.

Biden has won the presidential election with approximately 50.5% of the popular vote, to 47.7 % for Trump. 2.4 million votes were cast for other candidates, primarily for the Libertarian party. Biden has won, or is expected to win, 25 states and the District of Columbia, worth 306 electoral votes. Trump has or is expected to win 25 states worth 232 electoral votes.

At a time of unprecedented economic, social, pandemic, and political challenges on the state and national level, a study of the state and national election maps discloses, in stark display, the source and magnitude of our entrenched political and cultural divide: the urban and rural areas of our country are like parallel universes, or neighboring, but unaffiliated, islands.

Geography and an insular focus, rather than a common need, or sense of allegiance, or shared philosophy, are the essential contributors to our divisiveness.

Until each grouping of citizens can expand its horizon of understanding and learn to appreciate the need for and benefit of collaboration, this disconnect on the state and federal level will continue, whoever is in office.

Humphrey is a retired attorney living part time in Anacortes.