By understanding which States perform best and worst, then one can learn from the other—
and then one can elect politicians who will improve their states’ fortunes. Well, that would be the case if one had a well-educated voter base. The catch, of course, being that if one has a purposefully misinformed electorate then market forces can not drive rational outcomes.
Hence Mississippi will not likely understand Vermont.
(See part 1 Texas, part 2 Kansas)
We have had a lot of fun with Texas and Kansas. So much fun that it became all too easy to forget that the one thing the big Texas elephant feared most would be a rabid little mouse. Kansas is trying really hard, having selected the very worst type of governor one could imagine. But until now we have just been horsing about. Our hearts might want to go out to Texas and Kansas, but both these states have an Achilles heel or two.
Firstly Texas is on a trajectory to turn blue–and this would gut the Stupidparty (so expect ever more desperate cheating, voter suppression and revisionist lying in Texas—and Kansas has only become an impending disaster since around 2010 when Stupidparty came into full bloom). But the other weakness of these two states is the pure math because the math will become unequivocal. Sadly, this means that when discussing Mississippi, humor just seems out of place because the story of Mississippi is so irretrievably sad.
In discussing Texas and Kansas–I have somewhat run out of words—so…
Hardly any more words, each graph will launch a thousand words.
Mississippi does have slightly less regressive state taxes than either Texas of Kansas.
Yes, Texas does have the highest number of uninsured and Mississippi is the 34th worst state. But this is perhaps the highlight of Mississippi’s achievements. It’s only going to get a lot worse for poor little Mississippi.
Religion–before focusing on Mississippi digest the following table correlating religion with education from an international perspective.
Religion: Mississippi Rank #50
Education: Mississippi Rank #49
Poverty: Mississippi Rank #50
Life Expectancy: Mississippi Rank #50
Least Physical Exercise: Mississippi Rank #50
Most Porn: Mississippi Rank #50
Most Mooching: Mississippi Rank #49
Most Racist: Mississippi Rank #49
Women Equal pay: Mississippi Rank #47
Here we can see a typical example of the collateral damage the red states do to the United States in general—where their Stupidity often threatens to turn the US into a third world country.
So it looks like we have a very clear pattern. But to summarize, adding more factors, twenty different metrics in all— let us look at the ultimate chart.
*Red Font Numbers are guesstimates. I chose 30 for Kansas because they seem to have a pattern of coming in around 30. The interesting point about Kansas is to consider not where they have been, but where they are going. On the racism question (which can be hard to get data on) I was probably overly cautious (harsh) in giving Vermont 30. But I did this because they have had some recent bad press in regards to some police actions against minorities and (I was probably being kind to Kansas) since I could find no data I gave them a 15.
But I am not quite done. Just in case the pattern is still difficult to see, let’s add them all up and then compare these three Stupidparty States with two of the smarter blue states. I guess in the eyes of a Stupidparty disciple, this would be like comparing freedom-loving American patriots with European-loving socialists—who should just leave the country.
But if the blue state socialists did leave the country, who would be picking up the tab (the deadly costs of Stupidity)?
You have all the data your hearts could desire.
Please feel free to go ahead and vote for your choice–who do you believe is the most Stupidparty state of all?
Somehow my State of Arizona became lost in the turgid red pool.
We have enough resident bible humpers, and miscreants on the loose
to challenge the bottom fishes. We even institutionalize this with multiple
layers of discrimination and prejudice. Those who would deny Women’s Rights
also abhor marriage equality, rights of the LGBTQ Communities, immigrants,
and minorities. Remember, we were the last state to bring in Martin Luther King
Day.