“How Come Everything the Republican Party Stands for Involves Other People Dying?”

 Hartmann Report -  According to a popular meme, comedian Noel Casler (the guy who worked on The Apprentice and outed Trump’s drug abuse and diaper wearing) asks, “How come everything the Republican Party stands for involves other people dying?”  He then goes on to note GOP support for assault weapons, opposition to masks and vaccines, opposition to saving the environment, and their all-out war on Obamacare and Medicare-for-All.  Casler may have just been being glib, doing the written equivalent of a standup routine, but his question deserves a serious answer, so let’s look at the evidence. It’s undeniably true that Republican-controlled “Red” states, almost across the board, have higher rates of:

• Spousal abuse

• Obesity

• Smoking

• Teen pregnancy

• Sexually transmitted diseases

• Abortion

• Bankruptcies and poverty

• Homicide and suicide

• Infant mortality

• Maternal mortality

• Forcible rape

• Robbery and aggravated assault

• Dropouts from high school

• Divorce

• Contaminated air and water

• Opiate addiction and deaths

• Unskilled workers

• Parasitic infections

• Income and wealth inequality

• Covid deaths and unvaccinated people

• Federal subsidies to states (“Red State Welfare”)

• People on welfare

• Child poverty

• Homelessness

• Spousal murder

• Unemployment

• Deaths from auto accidents

• People living on disability