Posted on 09/02/2012 11:17:28 PM PDT by kingattax
Amazon has launched its own Election Heat Map 2012, a tool that shows whether Americans are buying more conservative books than liberal, and by how much. Paul Ryan fans, prepare to get excited.
f America voted the way that it bought books, then Willard Mitt Romney would be a very, very happy man indeed.
With everyone in America beginning to get Election Fever ahead of the race getting started in earnest with next week’s Republican National Convention – Well, that or Election Burnout; it really depends on how closely you’ve been paying attention to the race so far – it shouldn’t really be that much of a surprise to find out that everyone is trying to find some way to offer their own brand of unique political commentary to add to the breathless and heated discussions that will undoubtedly be going on across dinner tables, dimly-lit bars and any and every kind of social gathering point in the United States between now and November.
Into this landscape of potential conversational landmines steps Amazon.com, with its “Amazon Election Heat Map 2012,” which lets you see whether states are ordering political screeds that lean left, or right, and what percentage of which.
“Our 2012 Election Heat Map colors each state according to the percentage of red and blue book purchases, based on shipping address, that have been made on Amazon.com during the past 30 days,” the site explains. “We take the top-selling political books on Amazon.com and categorize them as ‘red,’ ‘blue,’ or neutral.
We classify books as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion material and/or customer classification, such as tags.
We compute percentages, updated daily, for each state and the US by comparing the 250 best-selling blue books during the time period against the 250 best-selling red books during the same time period, including new book launches.”
Different sales formats are counted in different calculations, although Amazon reports that “all orders during the period are given equal weighting in the calculation.”
Somewhat amazingly, only five states in the entire US have a more left-leaning bias overall than right, and even more amazingly, none of those states are traditionally-assumed liberal strongholds like California or Oregon. No, the five states that are buying more “blue” books than “red” are New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington DC, and DC is the only location where “blue” books have a significant edge (Currently, it’s 68 percent to 32 percent).
Overall, at time of writing, the US is leaning towards “red” purchases, with 57 percent of purchases trending conservative. The reddest of red states, according to Amazon’s calculations, is Mississippi, with 73 percent of purchases being “red” books (Current top seller: The Kindle edition of Edward Klein’s Obama administration exposeThe Amateur).
Whether this map will offer any true value in the days and weeks ahead remains to be seen. After all, as Amazon itself points out, its customers “read widely and often buy books that don’t necessarily fit with their own views.”
But still: It’s fun to see where the nation’s readers’ heads are at right now, isn’t it?
The Democrats will declare this chart racist.
Reading is a great past time now with more positive benefits.
How pleasant to see a bit of red in parts of New England and in California. Of course, I’m not sure how well the OWS/Obama Democrat types can read...
“The Democrats will declare this chart racist.”
Of course! Black ink is RACIST! Why does the ink always have to be black? Why can’t they use green or blue or red ink to print books???/s;)
If we dream it, it will happen.
Very interesting statistics, but the problem is that morons don’t read, but they still vote!
It will be curious to see how predictive this will actually be. My hunch is that a goodly number of the Dim voting base is dead, illiterate or at best may occasionally read and/or create grafitti on restroom stalls or neighberhood walls. Buying books from Amazon and then reading it? I don’t thinks so. I COULD be wrong...
Worse is not only could they NOT read..they’re dead and still able to vote.
Of course, you are correct. Sometimes you need an audacious spectacle on YOU TUBE to reach out.
Northern California and pockets of Socal vote GOP, which is a surprise to most people. I drive to the OC to surf, say Newport Beach, and people drive their cars with Romney stickers.
The problem is that the morons who get all of their information from tv rather than books are quite numerous.,, they get to vote.. And they like Obama ..
How things have changed. The left had nearly 100% control of the publishing industry before the 70s.
“None Dare Call It Treason” by Stormer and “A Choice Not An Echo” by Schaffly were published by small, out of the mainstream publishers in the 60s.
Heh, since when are those states not liberal strongholds? The fact that those came out on top shows me that this test is pretty good, because states don't get much more pure blue than those. It's pretty sickening to think of all those liberals embedded in the federal bureaucracy in D.C. that even the Reagan administration said they couldn't really figure out how to get rid of. It must be far worse now after almost 25 years under increasingly liberal big government spending presidencies.
So they play this game with one arm tied behind their back already
White folks I blue states are plain screwed up
Vermont was not liberal till 80s when NYC profs moved ib
Liberals don’t buy political books the way conservatives do.
Conservatives seek knowledge and insight of governance, politics, society and the world.
Liberals already know it all.
And I do not say that as a humorous comment.
The minds of most liberals are closed.
We all know this from our personal experiences.
The best you can expect from a liberal in a discussion or debate is that they impatiently allow you to speak your piece.
They never actually accept and process the ideas of others.
Eventually you realize that they cannot be reasoned with and just give up.
This attitude is reflected in the disparity of sales between liberal and conservative books.
And I would guess that a good portion of the liberal books that are sold are purchased by conservatives seeking to understand the liberal view and philosophy.
Of course your hunch is right. Non-fiction books, those not dealing with Vampires, How to Get Government Money, et al aren’t in the categories tracked here.
The audiences for a conservative book vs a progressive one are vastly different. In the conservative case, open-minded logically thinking rational people are seeking other alternatives to a obviously biased MSM to make descision.
In the progressive (liberal) case, those books are largely written by politicians whose books are bought by the hundreds/thousands by Unions, influence buyers, et al. And, they are bought directly from the publishers to “hand out to the union members.”
The true consumer for liberal ideas, the common Democrat voter isn’t interested in spending their own money to learn what they get from MSM, their Union, their teachers - their Government. They want exactly the reverse, more money more money more money from somebody else.
So Amazon’s analysis is flawed in my opinion.
“And I would guess that a good portion of the liberal books that are sold are purchased by conservatives seeking to understand the liberal view and philosophy.”
And another portion of liberal books are purchaced by liberals as ‘coffee table’ books ...
IMHO, a country which has consistently polled “center-right” for decades, most liberal/progressive electoral victories have been fraudulent.
There is absolutely no other explanation for the squealing coming from them whenever voter ID issues come to the forefront.
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