This map, which I saw on Digby’s blog, is not terribly surprising for what it illustrates: the incidence of death by firearm in the various states. And yes, once again, despite all our faults, we here in Connecticut can be justly proud of being at the forefront of the forces of reason.
The folks who prepared the graph felt that the only explanation for the disparity is the lax gun laws in the redder states, but I would say that, while that statement is true, the lax gun laws are themselves merely an expected outgrowth of the deeper problem that the redder states are bastions of ignorance and hate.
What struck me on first viewing the map is the fact that this same pattern, with only minor variations (largely because some more northerly states would do better by other measures), would repeat itself if you mapped any number of other unhealthy social phenomena, such as divorce rates, religiosity, rates of illegitimate birth, mean level of education (not to mention the more difficult to measure “quality of education”), access to health care, attendance at high school football games, popularity of schlocky country music, birtherism, tentherism, tea partyism, and of course, support for the Republican party. While more intangible and more difficult to measure, I’d hazard a guess that it also correlates well with the frequency with which politicians claim the moral high ground for their part of the country, the frequency being, of course, inverse to the reality. Additionally, I would also hazard the guess, in fact I’m sure, that the map correlates well with the extent to which the states are net exporters or net importers of federal dollars, the exponents of states rights and individual responsibility being, of course, the most avid suckers at the federal teat.
Make of this what you will. At the moment, these people run the country, and given the wisdom of the founders in giving Wyoming as many Senators as New York or California, not to mention the eminent Schuyler Colfax’s (you remember him, don’t you?) gift of the filibuster, they are likely to retain control as our empire crumbles around us.
My own conclusion is that, were it not for the absolute need to abolish slavery, it would have been better to allow the South to secede in 1860. It’s not too late. Maybe we should re-open talks. The lighter parts of the map could form a bi-coastal republic (California would have to agree to reform its referendum system) and the red parts of the map could try to institutionalize their distorted view of an 18th century mode of government on their godforsaken part of the earth and see how it works out.
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