Compare/contrast American Presidential elections

[David Horn]

(01-21-2019, 03:09 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Blue states are usually better than red states at everything, except the cost of doing business. That's because they have the right idea about things in general, and are willing to be well-informed. However, I notice that the northwestern mountain and plain red states do OK on some of the indexes, while the southeast is invariably the worst. These southeast ones are, after all, mostly the states that defended to the death their right to own and abuse slaves. It's been a long climb out of that hole, and they are nowhere near finished climbing out.

True enough, but not so much for that reason.  The problem with the Old South is a love and admiration of a rigid class structure.  The class structure is well maintained by people on the bottom who feel they belong there, as much as those on top who believe it too.  Worse, folks near the bottom find it fully appropriate that "their betters" should pay them poorly and treat them as less, yet they also embrace their position as somehow superior.  It's a bit weird to me, and I've been here for decades.  No one's prouder than a redneck, and redneck culture permeates the entire region.

For all that, it seems to work in an odd way, but it's far from ideal.