Blue Washington is actually purple. A couple days ago, writer Emmie Mears created the map below and called it “These Purple States of America.” The goal was to show that not every state is exactly red or blue — that there’s a much more honest and nuanced way to look at how people voted:
This country is divided like the grains of sand on the beach are divided,” Emmie wrote. “Sure, some might be remnants of shells and others of quartz and others of garnet and others of slate but good luck to anybody trying to claim one of those bits doesn’t exist in any given handful… Context is important, America.
We agree. And we think the same goes for Washington state, which is why we created our own purple map that uses shades of purple, rather than the binary of red and blue, to show how we voted:
The point is, we live in more ideologically blended communities than we may think. Even in Seattle, where Trump is on track to get only 8 percent of the vote — a historic low for a major party presidential candidate — there are at least enough Trump supporters in the city to “fill KeyArena plus another 1,000 waiting outside,” writes Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat.
But let’s be clear. Though Seattle’s a bit purple, we still act true blue. People are rushing to local immigrants rights groups and the Washington ACLU with offers to help, reports Crosscut. And local officials are saying they won’t reverse the city’s policy of not asking people about their immigration status – even if that means losing federal money for the city, reports KUOW and The Seattle Times.