Oct/09

How the states align on liberalism & conservatism

3 Comments · Posted by David Hume in data

Economic, social, and foreign policy congressional conservatism by state, 2008.

data · demographics

3 comments

OneSTDV · October 18, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Just curious why razib and Derb don’t just post under their regular names? They’re listed in the sidebar so it’s not a secret who “David Hume” and “Charles Bradlaugh” are.
John · October 18, 2009 at 5:21 pm

The thing that struck me most about this data is how closely correlated the three legs (economic, social, foreign policy) of conservatism are. Our best shot at winning in 2012 is a solid fusionist candidate. So far, there is nobody in the GOP nominees that obviously appeals on all three fronts. That was also the problem in 2008, which is part of the reason why the GOP had such a tough nomination fight, and the winner was just the old guy who got it because it was “his turn”. OK, actually there was a fusionist candidate in 2008: George Allen, who lost it because of his idiotic “macacca” comment.
Sully · October 19, 2009 at 9:06 am

You set me on a train of (crude) analysis that shows congress to be even more stupid and inefficient than I had thought. Those idiots can’t even carve up and pass out pork intelligently.

According to The Audacious Epigone post you linked, the three most liberal states are Massachusetts, Hawaii and Rhode Island; and the three most conservative states are Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.

Now you would think that the liberals in congress would have passed out more juicy pork to the liberal states than to the conservative states when they put together their big stimulus bill back in February. But according to Recovery.gov the three most conservative states overall got one job for every 3,898 residents; while the most liberal states got only one job for every 10,544 residents.

Wyoming – 61 jobs/532,000 population = one for every 8,741 residents
Idaho – 632 jobs/1,523,000 population = one for every 2,410 residents
Utah – 536 jobs/2,736,000 population = one for every 5,104 residents
Total – 1229 jobs/4,791,000 = one for every 3,898 residents

Massachusetts – 583 jobs/6,497,000 population = one for every 11,144 residents
Hawaii – 249 jobs/1,288,000 population – one for every 5,172 residents
Rhode Island – 6 jobs/1,051,000 population – one for every 175,166 residents
Total – 838 jobs/8,836,000 = one for every 10,544 residents

Congresscritters aren’t even smart and efficient when it comes to rewarding their friends. How can it possibly make sense to want to give them more control over the national economy?

State by state conservative versus liberal rankings from http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/10/economic-social-and-foreign-policy.html

State by state job creation figures from
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=recipientTopJobs&ViewAll=100

State population figures from
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEMdMS7_GYVYYQ

I posted a variant of this on my blog and will also be posting it at Zombie Contentions a bit later.