Red State Conservatives Are Dying Thanks to the People They Vote For
by Joan McCarter | October 9, 2023 - 7:04am
— from Daily Kos
While Ohio is the specific case study for the Post, they found the divide has increased nationwide.
Today, people in the South and Midwest, regions largely controlled by Republican state legislators, have increasingly higher chances of dying prematurely compared with those in the more Democratic Northeast and West, according to The Post’s analysis of death rates.
Those disparities are bound to increase over the coming years. Some of these studies are still looking at pre-COVID-19 statistics. As Charles Gaba has been chronicling for the past few years, the death rate from COVID-19 is higher in Republican-leaning areas. Republicans have made the COVID-19 pandemic a political fight, like in Florida where the actual person in charge of public health calls the vaccine “anti-human” and is urging Floridians to avoid the newest vaccines.
Studies are soon also going to have to account for states that have banned abortion and criminalized reproductive health care. A study last year from the Commonwealth Fund determined that “maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in 2020 in abortion-restriction states than in abortion-access states (28.8 vs. 17.8 per 100,000 births).”
One of the factors behind that is on full display in parts of Idaho, where there are no practicing OB-GYN physicians any more—they’ve left the state over fear of prosecution. That makes giving birth a lot more dangerous. Making it even worse, the state is now going to prosecute emergency room doctors who provide abortions to stabilize a patient’s health.
Gun safety legislation—or the absence of it—is another key difference contributing to higher premature-death rates in red states. In 2021, the states with the lowest rate of gun deaths were Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Alabama had the highest gun-death rates.
In all of these states, the so-called “party of life” has consistently proven that what it’s really about is actively enabling premature death. They’ve proven that by refusing to save lives by expanding Medicaid, by warring against basic science, by keeping people hungry and vulnerable, and by criminalizing doctors. All in the name of so-called “family values,” “freedom,” and the “sanctity of life.”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/joan-mcca...y-vote-for
1. It's not tenable
The divide between red and blue states is growing. It's not good for the country. Much of Red State hatred is already fueled by envy of the blue states. Envy for the economies and money of the blue states. Envy for the education systems in the blue states, and for the wealth they create.
As much as FOX and Cons want to talk about California and Chicago, they don't want people to focus on the horrific places many red states have become. Look at the worst 10 states for almost any quality of life category and you'll see the list dominated by red states. Crime, poverty, health care, education, personal freedom, income inequality, incarceration rate, obesity, life span, infant mortality, environment, and almost any category you can think of will have 8 or 9 of the 10 worst states as deep red states.
And that's where the resentment comes in. The working people in Red States are living a nightmare while they see the blue state workers getting further ahead of them. And Republicans are passing 1 draconian law after another that is making this worse and worse. Access to abortions is a fundamental right, denying access makes all of those quality of life categories worse. IF they media started covering this, we might see some people wake up, but the media doesn't pile on Alabama, Tennessee, or Louisianna because they get more clicks from talking about California's or Chicago's problems.
And that's not to say there aren't great places to live in the South, every state has beauty, and there are great spots everywhere. But if you drive through the South, get off the main highways at all, and look around, you're going to see the type of poverty that you normally see only in 3rd World countries. People live in literal shacks on the sides of the road. People without the access to basic things like healthy food, clean water, schools, and health care. Small communities devastated by drugs and crime.
It's really stark, these are the people left behind by Reaganomics, these are the people lost and frustrated with the country, and they are looking for someone to blame other than the people who deserve all fo the blame, the Republican Politicians who run their counties and states, the ones who work only to make the rich richer.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218347869
by Joan McCarter | October 9, 2023 - 7:04am
— from Daily Kos
While Ohio is the specific case study for the Post, they found the divide has increased nationwide.
Today, people in the South and Midwest, regions largely controlled by Republican state legislators, have increasingly higher chances of dying prematurely compared with those in the more Democratic Northeast and West, according to The Post’s analysis of death rates.
Those disparities are bound to increase over the coming years. Some of these studies are still looking at pre-COVID-19 statistics. As Charles Gaba has been chronicling for the past few years, the death rate from COVID-19 is higher in Republican-leaning areas. Republicans have made the COVID-19 pandemic a political fight, like in Florida where the actual person in charge of public health calls the vaccine “anti-human” and is urging Floridians to avoid the newest vaccines.
Studies are soon also going to have to account for states that have banned abortion and criminalized reproductive health care. A study last year from the Commonwealth Fund determined that “maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in 2020 in abortion-restriction states than in abortion-access states (28.8 vs. 17.8 per 100,000 births).”
One of the factors behind that is on full display in parts of Idaho, where there are no practicing OB-GYN physicians any more—they’ve left the state over fear of prosecution. That makes giving birth a lot more dangerous. Making it even worse, the state is now going to prosecute emergency room doctors who provide abortions to stabilize a patient’s health.
Gun safety legislation—or the absence of it—is another key difference contributing to higher premature-death rates in red states. In 2021, the states with the lowest rate of gun deaths were Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Alabama had the highest gun-death rates.
In all of these states, the so-called “party of life” has consistently proven that what it’s really about is actively enabling premature death. They’ve proven that by refusing to save lives by expanding Medicaid, by warring against basic science, by keeping people hungry and vulnerable, and by criminalizing doctors. All in the name of so-called “family values,” “freedom,” and the “sanctity of life.”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/joan-mcca...y-vote-for
1. It's not tenable
The divide between red and blue states is growing. It's not good for the country. Much of Red State hatred is already fueled by envy of the blue states. Envy for the economies and money of the blue states. Envy for the education systems in the blue states, and for the wealth they create.
As much as FOX and Cons want to talk about California and Chicago, they don't want people to focus on the horrific places many red states have become. Look at the worst 10 states for almost any quality of life category and you'll see the list dominated by red states. Crime, poverty, health care, education, personal freedom, income inequality, incarceration rate, obesity, life span, infant mortality, environment, and almost any category you can think of will have 8 or 9 of the 10 worst states as deep red states.
And that's where the resentment comes in. The working people in Red States are living a nightmare while they see the blue state workers getting further ahead of them. And Republicans are passing 1 draconian law after another that is making this worse and worse. Access to abortions is a fundamental right, denying access makes all of those quality of life categories worse. IF they media started covering this, we might see some people wake up, but the media doesn't pile on Alabama, Tennessee, or Louisianna because they get more clicks from talking about California's or Chicago's problems.
And that's not to say there aren't great places to live in the South, every state has beauty, and there are great spots everywhere. But if you drive through the South, get off the main highways at all, and look around, you're going to see the type of poverty that you normally see only in 3rd World countries. People live in literal shacks on the sides of the road. People without the access to basic things like healthy food, clean water, schools, and health care. Small communities devastated by drugs and crime.
It's really stark, these are the people left behind by Reaganomics, these are the people lost and frustrated with the country, and they are looking for someone to blame other than the people who deserve all fo the blame, the Republican Politicians who run their counties and states, the ones who work only to make the rich richer.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218347869
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