...is Paul Krugman's "America's Red State Death Trip." (click here)
Our politics divide the way we live and die. It has gone too far.
...About the living part: Democratic-leaning areas used to look similar to Republican-leaning areas in terms of productivity, income and education. But they have been rapidly diverging, with blue areas getting more productive, richer and better educated. In the close presidential election of 2000, counties that supported Al Gore over George W. Bush accounted for only a little over half the nation’s economic output. In the close election of 2016, counties that supported Hillary Clinton accounted for 64% of output, almost twice the share of Trump country.
The thing is, the red-blue divide isn’t just about money. It’s also, increasingly, a matter of life and death....
...A 2018 article in The Journal of the American Medical Association looked at changes in health and life expectancy in U.S. states between 1990 and 2016. The divergence among states is striking. And as I said, it’s closely correlated with political orientation....
...At this point, blue-state residents can expect to live more than four years longer than their red-state counterparts....
...Public policy certainly plays some role, especially in recent years, as blue states expanded Medicaid and drastically reduced the number of uninsured, while most red states didn’t. The growing gap in educational levels has also surely played a role: Better-educated people tend to be healthier than the less educated....
...obesity rates are significantly higher in red states....
...Conservative figures like William Barr, the attorney general, look at rising mortality in America and attribute it to the collapse of traditional values — a collapse they attribute, in turn, to the evil machinations of “militant secularists.” The secularist assault on traditional values, Barr claims, lies behind “soaring suicide rates,” rising violence and “a deadly drug epidemic.”...
That statement by Barr is inconsistent with the facts. Bill Barr, with every strange decision he makes only, proves he is a political AG and not one of the people. The FACTS point to the very Red State Bible Belt conservative figures like Bill Barr embrace. Barr wants to DISPLACE the facts to some kind of moral illness of spirituality.
Barr needs to embrace the facts and realize his intense denial of the truth is more or less illness of his politics.
Barr needs to protect the American people and not victimize them any further.
