CHART: Our Country Votes Ass Backwards. Do You?
A lot has been made of people “taking responsibility for theirlives” during this election season. The most “responsible” thing you can “personally”do is to know the facts behind the rhetoric and vote accordingly for yourinterests. Check out this handy chart of voting tendencies based on a personalresponsibility index to find your state!
The vertical axis represents how likely your state is to vote Democratic — the higher it goes, the more liberal it votes. The horizontal axis shows how “personally responsible” your state is — the farther right, the more responsible your state’s citizens are statistically. Some criteria of the personalresponsibility index include physical fitness, safety of sexual activity,likelihood of receiving federal subsidies, and inclination to inflict harm onthemselves or others through smoking or drinking.
FACT: States with high teenage (ages 15-17) pregnancy rates tend to voteRepublican.
FACT: Average score of the five “reddest” states (WY, OK, UT, ID, AL) is worseon each of six measures of irresponsibility (obesity, smoking, chlamydia, teenpregnancy, drunk-driving fatalities, and firearms assaults) than the averagescore of the five “bluest” states (NY, MA, RI, VT, HI).
FACT: States that score worst in this personal responsibility index are alsothe states whose congressional representatives voted against Obamacare, eventhough many of these unhealthy people free-ride their uninsured way intohospital emergency rooms.
FACT: This is the George Clooney of charts: total understated cool — just like my beloved Democratic-leaning, super-responsible Washington. Way to go,Seattle!
