By almost any measure of social pathology, the biggest problems are among the strongly Republican and culturally conservative states.

A recent Commonwealth report found that found that southern States dominate the bottom of the rankings in terms of health care – Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisianna, Nevada, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma are the bottom ten in terms of health care, with the last two tied for worst.  Notice that there is only one non-Southern state – Nevada – in that list.

Perrspectives has this to say:

The same dismal pattern applies to a wide array of measures of social dysfunction and pathology. 8 of the top 10 states with the highest murder rates are squarely in Red America. 7 of the 10 states with the lowest murder rates were in the Kerry column. (Interestingly, six of those states have no death penalty statute.) The 10 states with the highest divorce rates in 1998 all went for Bush in 2004. Red states constituted 9 on the top 10 in terms of out-of-wedlock births. And the Bible Belt has the greatest percentage of births to women under age 20, with the worst 15 states nationwide all among in the GOP ranks. By almost any measure of societal breakdown that so-called Republican “values voters” decry, it is Red State America where moral failure is greatest . . .  If the Republican electoral map closely correlates with social dysfunction, it is frequent church attendance which strongly predicts Republican party preference. Which is probably a good thing. Because if you live in a state that voted for George W. Bush, you’re going to need all the help you can get.

Utah stands out in contrast to other Republican strongholds.  We rank better in both health care and education than the Southern states, but our ranking in health care is due to a extremely  high rating on a single variable – otherwise we’d be in lower 3rd or upper 4rth quartile. 

As I reflect on almost 8 years of being a citizen advocate at the state legislature, I realize that by its nature conservative politics and governing philosophy disempower and discourage involvement by ordinary citizens, which results in social policies that exacerbate rather than alleviate social pathology.  Elected conservatives tend to ignore any evidence not presented by conservative groups – thus research from universities, mainstream advocacy groups and progressive or liberal groups is flat out ignored.  Polling done by media outlets is automatically discounted as having a liberal bias.  As a result, many people find dealing with these elected official so frustrating, they simply stop being involved in government.  Conservative activists are the only group that remain engaged – so  elected officials hear only one perspective, they pass even more legislation that alienates the majority and the cycle deepens.

Conservative PR about liberal media bias, and liberal colleges and liberal groups “immunizes” conservative officials – they believe any information other than that produced by conservative groups is inherently biased and untrustworthy.  The collision between conservative ideology and reality is painful to watch – as conservative public policy produces almost exactly the opposite of the stated goals.  (I.e. – tax cuts for the wealthy have led to growing income disparity, increased pressure on the middle class and curtailed options for economic advancement among the overwhelming majority of Americans – trickle on not trickle down.)