Red State Babylon

From "Red State Babylon", Vanity Fair, November 2006, p.162-168:

If the blue states are sinkholes of moral decay, as right-wing pundits insist, how come red states lead the nation in violent crime, divorce, illegitimacy, and incarceration, among other evils?

*Nine out of the top ten states with the highest incarceration rates are red states, with Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas leading the pack. Delaware is the only blue state in the top ten.

*All of the top ten states with the highest incarceration of women are red states, with Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Louisiana leading the pack.

*The ten states with the highest number of executed prisoners are red states. Texas, Ohio, and Oklahoma are the top three states.

*The top fifteen states for highest rate of death by firearms are all red states. Alaska, Louisiana, and New Mexico lead the group.

*Fourteen of the fifteen states with the highest rate of suicide are red states, with Wyoming, Alaska, and Nevada at the top of the list. The only blue state to appear is Oregon.

*The ten states with the highest divorce rates in the United States are all red states. Nevada, Arkansas, and Wyoming have the highest rates of divorce.

*Nine out of the ten states with the highest rates of illegitimacy are red states. The only blue state in the top ten is Delaware.

*Fourteen of the fifteen states with the highest percentage of obese residents are red states, with Mississippi, Alabama, and West Virginia coming in as the most obese states. Michigan is the only blue state in the group.

*Meanwhile, eight of the ten smartest states (based on state education rankings) are blue states. Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are the smartest states. Minnesota ranks sixth. Virginia and Montana are the only red states to appear on the list.

Comments

[Toby]

Thanks for contributing to the polarization of America!

[ray]

why let facts get in the way of republican statements? silly, silly facts.

[Steve]

Fascinating, though I'm sure the conservatives would retort with some comment about blue-state elitism. (And what is up with Delaware??)

[Ruben]

Great stats... I agree with Ray - so busy standing on a moral high horse, that they don't realize the horse is standing ass high in manure.

Seriously, what's up in Delaware? I thought they were plain jane vanilla.

[Roy]

Joshes, I have never believed the 'spin' thrown out there by the radical right. Maybe it's cause I have clear mind and can actually think logically, unlike the residents of some states where they will elect a president who is more stupid than a dog. Maybe it's a geographical thing? I just hate that everyone has to point fingers calling the other one evil or not evil. It's just silly, especially when you pull out the numbers and squash their theories.

[shannon]

well obviously with the high level of incarcerations, it isn’t that the blue states don’t have just as high counts of ‘wrong doing’ it’s that the red states are tougher on catching and punishing. So as you can see they are doing a wonderful job.

. . . .

I think I’ll stay in California, thank you all the same.

[Matt]

Another liberal conspiracy to discredit good, God-fearing people. First the dirty liberals came up with "gravity", then "evolution", and even "global warming". They will stop at nothing to turn America into a godless, secular nation on a road to hell paved with the fetuses of all the poor innocent unborn babies they have murdered.

[Carl]

Delaware's problem is it's proximity to Washington D.C. Red states may just incarcerate and throw away the key, Blue states may try rehabilitation.

[Josh]

As much I enjoy red state-bashing, this story was told by just about every other publication two years ago. Guys, if you're going to do political commentary, try moving beyond Vanity Fair -- most NY mags just don't cover hard news very well.

[anonymous for now]

nice new banner joshes! ;)

[May]

Quote:

"Another liberal conspiracy to discredit good, God-fearing people. First the dirty liberals came up with "gravity", then "evolution", and even "global warming". They will stop at nothing to turn America into a godless, secular nation on a road to hell paved with the fetuses of all the poor innocent unborn babies they have murdered.

Posted by: Matt | October 17, 2006 at 01:47 PM"

How does "gravity" and "global warming" suppose to turn USA to a godless nation?
I can understand that "evolution" is against the bible but gravity and global warming has nothing to do with anything.

[Rick]

To be fair, I think you have taken these statistics and continued to twist them in a way that is in itself indicative of what ‘the right’ continues to do. The information provided by Vanity Fair and posted by you, is in no way a sign of moral depravity, but more appropriately correlated with socio-economic disenfranchisement. People living in red states are neither morally depraved nor lacking the intellectual vigor we would like to impose upon them. If you have grown up in conditions riddled with poverty you are statistically more likely to do the following: commit violent a crime, become divorced, face incarceration, etc. Any person living in Oklahoma or Kentucky is not evil, they just lack access to the resources that persons living in blue states have historically and presently continue to take for granted.

In other words: Be the better bloggers, and don’t post crap that insights a false sense of superiority in your liberal readers. Of course Republican pundits are idiots, but don’t sink to their level by using poorly supported arguments. As a fellow Minnesotan, I expect more from the both of you.

[mama joey]

Oh yeah? Well, your mom is so stupid she thought strychnine was a new energy drink...

[SF liberal]

Can we give up this farce of one nation yet? You forgot to mention that it's the blue states that subsidise the red states with our federal tax revenues. I say let the reds fend for themselves! We could use all that money to make sure we don't get dragged down to their level.

Oh and Toby, go tell it to Karl Rove and the Decider.

[Josh H.]

Hi guys. I wanted to take a second and chime in on this post.

I first read this Vanity Fair article ("Red State Babylon") over the weekend while flying from Minneapolis back to New York City. I found the article and statistics interesting (apparently I missed similar stories a few years ago, as one commenter said, or something like that) and when I thought about posting the stats from the article I honestly didn't think of it as a brutal and nasty post.

Honestly I thought they were interesting statistics to think about, especially since more conservative folks have a habit of making more liberal folks seem like hell-raising evil doers, and these statistics seem to turn that accusation around.

However, especially in talking with my guy, Dylan, we got into a discussion about how statistics can be misleading and twisted in particular ways and all of that stuff for different political and idealogical means.

What I'm saying is this: We started to get some nastyish comments about this post, and I'm suggesting we all take a step back and breathe for a moment, understanding where the post came from and why, and take it for what it is.

As folks who do the Al-Anon and AA thing say, take what you want and leave the rest.

Josh and I love having you all as readers, and we'll see you next post. :)

[mosassy]

Minnesota just dropped from 6th to 13th smartest. And Thanks, Rick, for the wake-up slap, reminding me to be humble.

[Matt]

(Sorry Joshes to start a comment convo)

To May -
My previous comment about liberals taking America down the road to hell paved with aborted fetuses, etc., was all satire. I'm a sucker for sarcasm, what can I say?

I mentioned gravity being a theory because thats just what it is, a theory. I use that point whenever someone tells me that evolution is "just a theory" and that it can be disproven. I then aske them to disprove other theories, such as gravity. Shuts them up every time.

[Andrew]

I love how Mosassy points out that Minnesota dropped from 6th to 13th which I have heard that before 6th, we were number 1 and had been for quite some time and you know what happened just prior to our drop, Minnesota elected Republican Tim Pawlenty as our governor, probably the most conservative governor MN has elected. Republicans have had a history of still being progressive.

Again, random facts and you can take them however you want but Republicans cant tell me that their red state mentality is superior and more moral than my blue state liberal mentality, just b/c you outlawed gay marriage doesnt make up for all your other crap in the eyes of the church, not their opinion matters

[xstate]

To be honest, I don't buy that there's an actual difference between Red State and Blue State politics. Both are political idealogies that worked well in the 20th century but won't in the 21st. On a personal note, I think both sides are obnoxious, but I think your Blue State folk may be more willing to hear you out on some things. However, I think they have more of a know-it-all attitude. Your Red State folk come across as sissies. I know this because I live in thier community now. They aren't as badass like they appear, and I think they are self serving and full of it. They don't usually try to mess with you on a personal basis but I find that they are somewhat combative if you deal with them.

[honda-radio]

Thx! :)