This is the view most of us see: US voting by land mass.
This is how America votes by population.
Journalist Vince Chandler, creator of These American Crossroads, on connecting isolated “blue dots,” resisting authoritarianism, and building hope across the heartland.
To understand the true demographics of voters, we need to look at maps not by land — since land doesn’t vote — but by population. Connecting those blue dots is central to Vince’s work.
An interview with journalist Vince Chandler on These American Crossroads
Yellow Scene: Vince, you were just on your podcast, Find The Helpers, talking about the people you’re meeting in the Heartland. They all tell you they’re a “blue dot,” and you’re realizing those blue dots are actually connected. When you look at a map of the United States by voting population instead of land mass, it completely changes the picture. These people tell you they’re not meeting each other — they’re isolated in Wichita, or in other towns. Let’s talk about that.
Vince Chandler: It’s easy to feel isolated, especially in a world siloed into media bubbles. What we see on our local feeds can feel like the whole truth, while coastal media outlets cut staff and can’t afford reporters on the ground anymore.
That leaves blue dots across the heartland with only weeklies and small papers — themselves gutted — often running press releases as full stories. And activists often don’t know how to write or share their impact. Storytelling is a gift — it takes skill to connect abstract ideas in ways people understand.
By being out there on the road, telling stories in people’s own language, drawing lines between neighbors a couple hours apart, you shrink the world and push back against isolation. The Trump administration and its propaganda regime need people to feel alone. They’re not censoring dissent because it’s dangerous — they’re censoring hope, because hope connects people.
If we platform stories of hope, and what activists, advocates, and lawmakers are doing to fight fascism, it reminds us we’re not alone. The largest voting bloc in 2024 was non-participants, many disengaged from apathy. Gen Z voters weren’t drawn to MAGA policy but to the promise of radical change. Biden’s return to the status quo felt inadequate.
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Fighting Oligarchy Tour, March 2025. Photo by Vince Chandler
Trump tapped into the same populist momentum Bernie Sanders had in 2016 — promising something radical and new. Remember, Bernie swept every county in West Virginia in 2016 by calling for revolutionary change.
Fascism thrives where there’s no hope. By rekindling the narrative that we, the people, have power — and that there are more of us — we can drive real populism against fascism. In my best scenario, it’s socialist, but at the very least it’s anti-fascist. That’s what These American Crossroads is becoming: an organ for people who feel alone.
Almost 500 Kansans gather on the south steps of their State House for a group photo in solidarity with the 50501 nationwide Rage Against the Regime protest organized in all fifty states on August 2, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine).
No one person can change the world. It takes millions of interconnected actions — protests, organizing, mutual aid, a Texan buying school supplies, or a Kansan making zines and buttons. She thinks it’s insufficient, but those buttons connect people like team colors. Media ignores those details, but they matter.
Drawing these lines is exhausting — I come back from the road and sleep for days. But people focused on survival don’t have that energy. That’s where storytellers come in: showing that neighbors are acting too, not just Congress. Nobody can do everything, but we can kindle a fire together.
Yellow Scene: Two questions: no act of resistance is too small, and many people feel overwhelmed and afraid. Not everyone can protest or make buttons. What other forms of resistance have you seen or would recommend?
With concerns of outgrowing their space, each service is now averaging an attendance of 50 congregants in the small coffee shop space, the spiritual leadership at The Urban Abbey is adding more service options and discussing expanding in to a larger space in tandem with the Abbey’s bookstore outreach. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene).
Vince Chandler: In These American Crossroads, we wrote about a church in Nebraska that makes advocacy part of its weekly service, with an expert outlining federal, state, and local issues and how to fight them.
Resistance can be lobbying lawmakers, donating, cooking for strikers, or coordinating rides to the polls.
GoFarm connects local farmers directly with customers — no middleman, no grocery store. Farmers get paid, crops don’t rot, and people eat food grown in their own county.
Retired Iowa Supreme Court Justice Brent Appel works on his computer in his office in the faculty bay at Drake University’s Law School, researching the connections and threads impacting Black Iowans through their legal system, from the writing of the state constitution to how it contrasts with contemporary federal law on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine)
At Drake University in Iowa, a law professor created a course on systemic racism in the state constitution, after public schools were banned from teaching Black history through a Black lens. He’s teaching kids who otherwise wouldn’t get that history.
Even sharing information is resistance. Many are afraid to hit “share” online for fear of backlash. But others in their feed are waiting to see that. Creating more than you consume is important. For every post that drags you down, make one that speaks honestly about how you feel. That honesty is resistance.
Supporting local arts is also resistance. Instead of $15 to Disney, invest in a local comedy troupe or theater. Colorado is home to Phamaly Theatre Company, the nation’s oldest accessible theater company, producing shows led by disabled artists and performers. Support them.
Yellow Scene: So even at the neighborhood level — say in Erie — people could host Black history courses?
David Hogg, recently ousted as Vice Chair for the Democratic National Committee, speaks from stage at Pitt State University during an event hosted by the Kansas Young Democrats on Saturday, August 16, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine)
Vince Chandler: Exactly. Host potlucks, invite neighbors, create phone-free spaces, and talk about what people are doing. Building community and refusing isolation is a radical act of resistance. Even everyday conversations — like tariffs driving up the price of Sour Patch Kids — show how federal policy shapes daily life.
Movements don’t spring up fully formed. The Black Panthers’ free breakfast program began when Fred Hampton heard about a hungry child and asked the women in his community how to help. They started feeding kids. It wasn’t seen as revolutionary at the time, but became revolutionary in hindsight.
Independent media can tell these stories from the ground up, not from ivory towers. We report with communities, not at them.
Yellow Scene: Final question: Can we win?
Vince Chandler: Absolutely. Fascism has never truly won. It rises, but it can’t sustain. This moment may be our generation’s burden, but we will win.
Yellow Scene: So it’s worth the fight?
Shelby Hermosillo, of Salina, Kansas, speaks following Congresswoman Rashida Talib during a Popular Democracy press conference before staging an act of nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol. “I had this weight over me, knowing that I was leaving my family back home, losing money because I’m here to do this, but it matters more than making sure we had a check at the end of the week,” Hermosillo said. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine)
Vince Chandler: Absolutely. Every generation has its rights movements. This is ours. You don’t want to be on the sidelines when your grandchildren ask, “What did you do?”
Yellow Scene: Yellow Scene was attacked by local Trump supporters in Erie for covering Charlie Kirk. I wrote that America faces a moral dilemma — not about Rs and Ds, but about each of us: Who will we be in this moment?
Vince Chandler: People need to accept discomfort, especially those in privileged groups. Some of us could disappear into comfort — but only at the expense of others. Fascism allows that. We have to refuse it.
Yellow Scene: I’ve seen friends say, “Why do we have to have sides?” But we do — this administration is dismantling democracy.
Vince Chandler: Exactly. It looks like halves, but it’s really thirds: a third support fascism, a third oppose it, and a third just want to live their lives. The real choice is whether we side with the many or the few who exploit. Billionaires are our feudal lords now. The true divide is capital versus anti-capital.
Yellow Scene: Coming back to the attacks on Yellow Scene — they’re not just boycotting us, they’re targeting the small businesses that advertise with us. That’s despicable.
Vince Chandler: I see the difference between that and boycotting businesses that take political stances themselves. This is an attack on your platform for publishing anti-fascist journalism. And all journalism should be anti-fascist.
Anti-Fascist = Pro-Democracy explanation: There’s no shadowy “Antifa organization.” Anti-fascism is simply the belief that democracy should not be dismantled by authoritarianism. In today’s climate, calling journalism “anti-fascist” is another way of saying it’s pro-democracy: it protects free speech, it holds power accountable, and it ensures communities have the information they need to stand together.
Vince Chandler (continued): I welcome the challenge. They’re a tiny minority doing something foolish. They’re asking businesses, “Do you support anti-fascist journalism?” Most Coloradans do. Now is the time for businesses to stand proudly with pro-democracy media like Yellow Scene.
Yellow Scene: Exactly. They’re not making boycott lists, they’re making lists of people to support.
Vince Chandler: Businesses should recognize that. Their act of resistance is to keep advertising and double down. Local businesses have power, and historically, people’s movements succeed when businesses support them — with food, space, or resources. That solidarity sustains movements.
Find all of Vince’s stories of resistance and persistence on yellowscene.com
Find The Helpers Podcast on YouTube/YellowSceneMagazine
Catch Jeff Fard’s interview with Shavonne Blades and Vince Chandler
Lastly, Yellow Scene remains one of the few truly independent publications — free from paywalls, political boards, and still upholding the Great Wall between our advertising and editorial departments. Projects like These American Crossroads exist only through reader support, as there simply isn’t enough local advertising to fund all of our work. While we’re covering a small per diem to help Vince with meals and gas, it’s not enough to keep him on the road. (He’s even spent nights sleeping in his car on this trip.) If you value independent reporting, please consider donating so Vince can continue connecting the blue dots and documenting this critical moment for American democracy.
Best known for capturing striking content from the frontlines of social movements, Heartland EMMY-nominated filmmaker and photographer Vince Chandler has spent 20 years creating art and documentary visuals across the U.S. They served as Communications Director for Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, and Vince has earned national recognition for their work as a visual journalist for The Denver Post. Vince was the principal cinematographer for the feature documentary film Running With My Girls, which premiered at the 2021 Denver Film Festival.
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What does resistance & resilience look like in the Heartland of America?
Sometimes it’s a protest outside an ICE detention center. Sometimes it’s a rural nurse explaining how Medicaid cuts will shutter the town hospital. Sometimes, it’s a law professor teaching systemic racism at a University in a state where CRT is banned in public schools.
As Trump’s second term unfolds — and the One Big Beautiful Act guts healthcare, empowers ICE, and reshapes American life — independent journalism is more vital than ever. However, the national press rarely shows up in the places where policy has the most impact.
We do.
These American Crossroads is a collaboration between Vince Chandler, Emmy-nominated visual journalist, and Yellow Scene Magazine, Boulder County’s only independent newsroom.
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