The states aren't Red or Blue, they're Purple!

Check out these incredible variations on the typical "Red State/Blue State" map created by professors at the University of Michigan. They enlarge and reduce the size of the states to reflect the population, look at the country by county instead of by state, and tint each area percentages of blue to red to reflect the relative support. It's amazing.

Also check out this very revealing comparison of the U.S. pre-Civil War with the red/blue state map. Looks like things haven't changed much!