Jesusland
From FamousPictures
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Origin
The original image was created on November 3, 2004 by G. Webb aka Kemper_Boyd, a poster on yakyak.org, an Internet message board for fans of the work of Jeff Minter (see the original discussion. Its creation has been incorrectly attributed to many different individuals, most notably Michael Moore.
Geography
The meme is in the form of a map of North America which depicts a new hypothetical national border between the United States and Canada. The "blue states" from the 2004 election have been merged with Canada to form a single nation, which is labeled the "United States of Canada". The remaining "red states" are labeled as "Jesusland". Some view the map as a humorous, cynical, or even bigoted commentary on the cultural and political divide within the United States; others have labeled themselves proud to be from one "nation" or the other.
The map's appearance highlights the fact that the "red states" in the lower 48 are all contiguous with one another, whilst the "blue states" are also contiguous when combined with Canada. Adding the Canadian province of Alberta to "Jesusland" does not break the contiguity of either "country" (see right).
Analysis
Critics of the Jesusland map, and of the concept of the red state vs. blue state divide in general, have pointed out that the actual electoral map is in fact mostly "purple", containing a mixture of support for both parties (and therefore by comparison, both cultural outlooks) which rarely exceeds 65% towards either side in any given location, and that some exit polls exaggerated the depth of adherence to the issues, creating a mistaken impression of the public's motivations. In addition, in most states (especially in most of the swing states, but also even in some solidly "red" or "blue" states), a large urban–rural split or geographic split exists in which one side tilts one way and another part the other way.
They also point out that it generally ignores political and cultural divides in Canada, which is not a monolithic bloc of opinion, and in fact actually has many political regions. (Although the Liberal Party of Canada dominated the parliaments elected between 1993 and 2004, Alberta and other parts of Western Canada continue to share many cultural similarities with the "red states", namely by voting for conservative parties that support Republican-style values.) In addition, Quebec is often seen as a place in itself or "distinct society", with few similarities to either the red or blue states. This is because the struggle over the "National Question" (Sovereignty vs. Federalism), dominates the political discourse. (Curiously enough, Quebec, unlike the American blue states, has not yet been satirically called "Western France", despite its very liberal voting patterns and other more obvious reasons.)
Relevance Now
2006 elections saw a conservative government gain control in Canada and in the US in the mid-term election in Nov the Democrats gained control of the Senate and Congress. This would drastically change the map's "colours" and shape making it irrelavant.
