A colorful map

One of the most astounding results of the 2016 election was the affirmation of how different and separated California is from the rest of America. Here, we voted for a woman in every race we could, including choosing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a near two-to-one margin. (And the vote total was almost three-to-one in Sonoma County.)
Sonoma County’s newest county supervisor, Lynda Hopkins, is a young mother, elected to her first public office. Cloverdale voters selected two women, MaryAnn Brigham and Melanie Bagby, from a crowded field of eight candidates to join their city council. The top vote getter in the Sebastopol city council race also was a woman, Neysa Hinton. Debora Fudge, one of the county’s longest serving elected officials, was returned to a sixth term on Windsor’s town council.
On the state level, voters elected Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants, to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer. She will join Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate where California has had an all-women contingent since 1993.
But Sonoma County and California voters didn’t just vote for women. Poll results also show much more evidence how the Left Coast looks more and more like a separate country from Middle America, now being christened by some as Trumpland.
What is the bigger surprise, that we here in Sonoma County favor more welcoming immigration policies and racial diversity, or that so many of our American brethren do not? Where other states seem ready and eager to dismantle Obamacare, the voiced sentiments here are sounding concerns for the possible loss of hard-won medical coverage reforms.
Somewhat understandable, the mining and mill regions of Appalachia now hope a President Trump will reopen the old coal mines and steel factories. Here, voters keep endorsing clean power, offshore drilling bans and climate change policies that foresee a post-carbon future.
California registered enough net Clinton votes (3 million) to offset the winning popular vote margins of Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin (436,000.) But California’s 55 Electoral College votes are not enough to cancel out the 64 total of the four Rust Belt states mentioned above.
The Election Night maps of the United States offered stark evidence of a divided America. The entire West Coast of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Hawaii was Democratic blue, while 28 states in the midwest, center and south were all deep red Republican, leaving the other coast of the northeast an isolated Democratic blue.
What does this geography show us? It’s not as if this is a new map. California, America’s most populated state, has shown many different colors, from blue to green to rainbow — but seldom red. (Registered Republicans in Sonoma County are outnumbered by “decline to state” independents.)
But none of that changes the fact of who is now California’s president-elect. And, don’t be mistaken, Donald Trump and the Republican party has a base and a voice here. Some 37,241 Sonoma County voters chose Trump last Nov. 8 at county polls.
You don’t have to be an alt-right white nationalist to want to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. Sonoma County may look blue or green on a political map, but we have plenty of red, white and blue patriots, true-red conservatives and plain-colored working families, too.
We prefer to look ahead to working with the many new and re-elected women and men in local, county and state offices. The choices of Sonoma County voters look very clear to us. In many local votes a top agenda of affordable housing, infrastructure repairs, improved workers’ wages and environmental protections appeared to have just been voter-certified.
If nothing else, perhaps we can continue to set a greater example for the rest of our multi-hued America.
— Rollie Atkinson