Shifting Colors

Real life is a lot messier than any chart or axis I'm likely to come up with. The scattered, clumpy, shifting patterns in the image below are a little bit closer to how politics actually works.

NOTE: If none of the circles are moving, your browser isn't set up to handle animated SVG images. Sorry.

Each circle in the image can be seen as a particular faction or ideology coming into and out of power or popularity. Multiple colors converging represents how coalitions form and break up. Individual dots moving away from the center are becoming more extreme, while those drifting towards the center are becoming less so.

Politics is messy, but politics is built up from the individual choices of many people. When you step back from these recurring factional battles, the broader political patterns represented on the Asplund Chart emerge.