Awesome Chart

MayDay10

For those unfamiliar, XKCD is a comic that generally has stick-figures doing whatever, and often centers around nerdy thoughts. At times, he goes into great detail to do things like map the internet, compare amounts of pollution in things, and enumerate the money supply.

Yesterday's comic was a huge info-graphic on Congress.

The guy is really smart, cites his sources, explains his methods, and is pretty attentive to detail, so this stuff is pretty cool. Here's the link, but make sure you click the picture to see it full-scale.

http://xkcd.com/1127/
http://xkcd.com/1127/large/

Probably the coolest chart regarding US History I have seen.

Kat

Very interesting chart. I've been seeing a number of Republicans on tv lately lamenting the loss of moderate Republicans. They wonder where their party went. I'd like to see more moderates, an increasing number of moderates in both parties always. It's good to have a variety of ideas but we need more moderates. imho.

usamamasan1

Romney will lead more from the center than Obama has.
It's going to be great!

MayDay10

Kat wrote:

Very interesting chart. I've been seeing a number of Republicans on tv lately lamenting the loss of moderate Republicans. They wonder where their party went. I'd like to see more moderates, an increasing number of moderates in both parties always. It's good to have a variety of ideas but we need more moderates. imho.

Definitely. You can see there has always been divide and some degree of dysfunction, but the erosion of the Republican party in present day is concerning.
I have a number of Republican friends who feel a bit disenfranchised by the Republican Party. Especially when it comes to Government spending and social issues (Govt hands off unless its something we disagree with, then hands on is OK)

dignin

Took me awhile to figure the chart out. Pretty cool to see it all laid out like that.

brianlux

MayDay10 wrote:

Kat wrote:

Very interesting chart. I've been seeing a number of Republicans on tv lately lamenting the loss of moderate Republicans. They wonder where their party went. I'd like to see more moderates, an increasing number of moderates in both parties always. It's good to have a variety of ideas but we need more moderates. imho.

Definitely. You can see there has always been divide and some degree of dysfunction, but the erosion of the Republican party in present day is concerning.
I have a number of Republican friends who feel a bit disenfranchised by the Republican Party. Especially when it comes to Government spending and social issues (Govt hands off unless its something we disagree with, then hands on is OK)

I've heard similar sentiments from Republican friends. (Yes, it's true! I have Republican friends.) The Republican Party is becoming saturated with right wing extremest- Romney (yes, Romney), Beck, Palin, etc. and these Republican friends of mine are at a loss as to what to do. They feel disenfranchised. They're out there but they are a less noisy bunch. But they are still out there.

PJinIL

Look forward to taking a closer look at this, I've never been a fan of history, but as I get more into thinking about politics in general, I'm finding more interest in where these parties have come from. I have views on both sides, and wish the whole party line voting would loosen up. If anyone is a fan of NPR, there is a great long-format interview with Cokie Robert here:

http://will.illinois.edu/focus/interview/focus120531b/

About 25 minutes in they start a discussion leading up to bipartisan issues...

curly

Very cool chart....thanks for the post...