Jesusland

About

Jesusland is a slang term for the “red states” that traditionally vote Republican in the United States, including the south-central and southeastern states known as the “Bible Belt.” The meme first surfaced in 2004 during the U.S. presidential election season, when a satirical map of the country, along with its Democrat counterpart “The United States of Canada” consisting of “blue states” began to circulate on various online forums. The two areas are seen as having fundamental differences in ideology.

Origin

On November 3rd, 2004, G. Webb posted the map in a thread titled “I’ve solved it! – Now the Jesusland watch thread” on YakYak forum^[1], which instantly went viral with the New York Times^[2] labeling it an “instant internet classic”.

Spread

The series of maps associated with the terms “Jesusland” and “United States of Canada” gained popularity on various political blogs, as well as articles appearing on word reference sites like Urban Dictionary^[5], Politics on About.com^[7] and Uncyclopedia^[3].

Many Democrats on the web thought the map was a good idea, jokingly and semi-seriously taking secession into consideration. The most voted Urban Dictionary entry provides the left-leaning definition of “Jesusland,” which reads:

The magical North American Christian theocracy whose citizenry have given George Bush a second term in office not because of his “accomplishments”, but because of his blatant religious fundamentalism and exaggerated 1950s-era “family values.” It is bordered by the Blue States and Canada to the west, north, and northeast; Mexico to the south, and the Atlantic to the east.

Meanwhile, Republicans online also embraced the concept of “United States of Canada,” publishing various interpretations of the map as well as drawing up a mock flag for the satirical nation of Jesusland.

The term “Jesusland” was also referenced in other articles for publications like the Los Angeles Times^[8] and New York Times’ Freaknomics blog^[6] in the late 2000s.

Notable Variations

Many Internet users from both ends of the bipartisan spectrum shared their own maps, featuring additional countries and borders.

In Popular Music

In April 2005, American indie musician Ben Folds released the album “Songs for Silverman,” which included a track titled “Jesusland.” In July 2005, American punk band NOFX released a 7" single titled “Leaving Jesusland,” which was officially included in the 2006 album Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing.

Saturday Night Live: “Blue State Santa”

In December of 2009, Saturday Night Live aired a digital short called “Blue State Santa”. In the short, Santa decides to skip over the houses of the “red states” that voted for Bush in 2004. During it, he holds up a map of the red and blue states, similar to the original Jesusland map, but with the title “Dumb****istan”.

Analysis of Map

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

In the context of the Jesusland map, the states in which a majority voted Democratic in the 2004 election are viewed as more socially liberal in outlook, and therefore having more cultural similarities with Canada than with the remainder of the United States. The Republican-voting red states tended to vote based more on Christian moral values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research. Holders of these values are characterized by a high degree of faith in Evangelical Christianity, thus causing the name of Jesus to be affixed to the hypothetical country; in an article by Ron Suskind of the New York Times, a Republican official characterized the divide as being one between a “faith-based community” and a “reality-based community”.

Search Interest

Sources