Bush's base are the most unhealthy people in America

[malaise]

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSTRE4B276H20081203
<snip>
Louisiana has displaced Mississippi as the unhealthiest U.S. state and other Southern states were close rivals due to high obesity and smoking rates in new rankings that deemed Vermont the healthiest.

Many Southern states were clustered near the bottom of the rankings. The region has some of the highest rates of obesity, which contributes to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer, as well as high rates of smoking, which causes cancer, lung disease, heart disease and other problems.

One in five Louisianians lacked health insurance, while 31 percent were obese. It also suffers from high child poverty, infant mortality, premature death rate and cancer deaths, according to the report.

Louisiana fell from 49th to 50th, replacing Mississippi. Rounding out the bottom 10 were South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nevada and Georgia.
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These people drink too much Kool Aid. Guess they love being unhealthy - it must affect brain activity as well.

[glowing]

1. Much has to do with many not having access to healthcare. That's what

right to work states do, they make you sick.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. This is what these people vote for, isn't it?

They think that if they had access to healthcare that would be communism, so they're against it.

[AllieB]

2. They're also the poorest people in the US.

Poverty=Obesity in the US.

[malaise]

3. What someone needs to explain to me is why

the support people who only defend the rich.

[anonymous171]

4. CUZ BUSH IS A CRUSADUR WHO SUPPERTS TRADISHINAL VALUES

[malaise]

7. Yah think

:rofl:

[AllieB]

5. Religion. Also, these states have the lowest literacy rates.

It's a potent mix for gullibility.

[malaise]

6. It's not just states, but countries with an overdose of religion

also demonstrate the most ignorance and poverty.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. In North Central and Northwest Arkansas, at least,

there are LOTS of rich retirees from "up North", particularly Illinois and Iowa, and they tend to vote solidly Republican.

[SharonAnn]

15. And some of the most uneducated.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Here's how they became Bush's base:

The first steps were Nixon's Southern strategy, which appealed to the racists, and his talk about "the forgotten Middle American," which appealed to working class white people who were disturbed by the counterculture and the urban riots of the 1960s.

Then the Democrats conflated the race issue and the poverty issue, which are overlapping issues, but not identical. Whereas publicity about Johnson's War on Poverty had portrayed poor people of all races, the 1970s emphasis on affirmative action (which was needed, but should have been coupled with programs to lift all races and ethnic groups out of poverty) created the impression that Democrats thought that only black people were poor.

From then on, it was easy for the Republicans to characterize the Democrats as caring ONLY about black people and not about urban or rural poor whites.

It's mostly the Republicans' amazing propaganda machine, but the Dems contributed to losing the South by their inattention to the subtleties of the interaction of race and poverty.

[malaise]

9. Good post

Spot on.

[SmileyRose]

12. Governor Roy Barnes (D - GA)

My husband and I were slap out stunned when he lost to Sonny Purdue (formerly DINO - now R). We knew Governor Barnes was playing with fire when he pushed altering the state flag to at least get the "stars and bars" to be minimal, but we had no idea of the rampant racism outside metro Atlanta. We really were pretty stunned.

[JackRiddler]

13. Thinking about Louisiana kills me...

I don't understand how they could vote for more Bush after Katrina. Of course, the people of New Orleans didn't, but what's with the majority in that state?

[RedCappedBandit]

14. Man, and here I am trying to cut calories

Why did I have to choose weightlifting as my hobby! :o