I saw an interesting graphic about the comparisons between Republican States and things like poverty, pregnancy and the like. While Republicans do have direct control over these issues, who or what controls the Grand Old Party? I think that it must be religion. That seems to be their base.
Directly related to the ability of people to live, poverty is a major social indicator. Those living in poverty tend to have all kinds of major issues with surviving, learning, and growing into stable society. (click on all images for source)
Let’s look at another social value, divorce. I find it amusing when a politician who promotes ‘traditional values’ and rejects homosexual marriage because “it will destroy the sanctity of marriage” is caught soliciting prostitutes or gets a divorce. I find it amusing because it’s hypocritical, not that I care what the politician actually does.
I like the above map for one reason. That red dot that indicates a statistically significant result.
Moving on, one measure of the health of a society is education. How many students graduate with a high school education?
One of the things that impacts graduation rates is teen pregnancy. In spite of modern education, many states require abstinence only education (when that is allowed). See if you can figure out which states promote abstinence only.
This next diagram shows which states are NOT getting federal funding for abstinence only programs. These states not getting funding are doing something other than abstinence only. As an aside, it somewhat boggles the mind how one gets money for not teaching something…
One more. Let’s look at the science education in the US, specifically evolution.
This is older data, but it’s still roughly the same today.
Finally, let’s compare to the religiosity of the US States.
Can we blame religion on the trends that we see in the data?
In the spirit of being skeptical, I want to say no. But the trend is supported with the highly religious GOP being the ones who are supporting abstinence only, which tends to increase the problems with poverty and graduation rates. The GOP uses religion as a basis for not teaching evolution. I don’t know what to make of the divorce data, but I know the GOP is all about the sanctity of traditional marriage (as long as they can get divorced).
The trend is obvious. Higher religion. Higher poverty. Higher teen pregnancy. Worse education.
