Red State Socialism

25 Jan 2012

Anyone have a better idea of how to visualize this data? It feels like there should be one – but maybe sometimes a table is the right tool for the job.

10 Responses to Red State Socialism

Hawke

January 25th, 2012 at 9:10 am

Would like to see it based on congress rather than president.

Also, 2004 data could be updated. For Example, New Mexico went Obama in 2008.

I’d also like to see the same data minus federal spending due to military bases. Fairly static spending that was likely setup decades ago with little chance of changing no matter who the population is voting for.

David

January 25th, 2012 at 10:55 am

I second everything that Hawke says above. Very interesting but perhaps there is more pertinent data available which might tell a different story.

Brian C

January 25th, 2012 at 10:57 am

Yeah, Im calling BS on this chart. That spending is almost so perfectly divided (accept for 9 states) by prez party vote makes this thing suspicious. The party is incidental and not causal. There has to be other factors contributing to this divide that doesn’t fault parties. The clues lay in the outliers. Why are they different?

Jared Gardner

January 25th, 2012 at 11:40 am

So, Republicans hire smarter accountants? Great finding!

Free Latveria

January 25th, 2012 at 7:02 pm

Republicans certainly hire more people to post comments!

January 26th, 2012 at 8:59 am

Interesting stuff. I’ve often heard political science types say that American voters are unusual in tending to vote against their personal economic interests, in both directions. I’ve never seen it displayed so clearly before.

Maybe it’s because in the past the parties were ideologically the other way round, and families and communities stayed loyal? Or maybe we over analyse politics, and globally, higher earners like blue and lower earners like red? :-/

Elizabeth b

January 26th, 2012 at 11:30 am

Brian C, the point isn’t that it’s causal. The point is that it’s hypocritical that states who benefit the most from government largesse have voters who yell the largest about wanting less government spending.

January 26th, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Being color blind for a moment, what’s up with the Get-more’s outnumbering the Give-more’s almost 2-1? Now, THAT’S the American way! NEXT UP: Let’s examine how many of the Give-more states ran budget deficits in 2011, and the total $ amounts for both columns.

Stephanie Lee

January 29th, 2012 at 8:32 pm

How about a column chart normalized to $1.00? In other words, chart the federal spending that exceeds/falls short of federal taxes. States with spending above $1 will have columns sized to spending – $1.00, e.g, $1.03 for New Mexico, and states with spending below $1 will show $1.00 – spending, e.g. -$0.03 for Florida. This way, the getters will clearly fall above the line and the givers will clearly fall below the line. Each column can be colored red or blue as appropriate.

Red State Socialism

10 Responses to Red State Socialism

Comment Form

What is Chart Porn?

Categories

Blogroll