The more points of view you have on something, the better your perspective. In nature (and optics) we call this binocular vision and depth perception. Now let's see what happens when we apply those principles to understanding America's political landscape
First, a state-level map of Presidential voting from 2004, red-or-blue based on which party won the state's popular vote. 
Now look at a "cartogram" of that same map, only this time based on county-by-county voting, displaying shades of red, blue and purple based on partisan percentages and distorted to show an area's relative electoral strength (so New York is large because it has more electoral votes, but Wyoming is actually inflated too because the Constitution give it an electoral bonus).
These maps come from a project conducted by several researchers at the University of Michigan, and they've got a bunch more -- plus new maps of the 2006 Congressional mid-terms.
Not quite the red-state v. blue-state culture war we've been told to expect, is it?
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