America has a “Poverty Belt”, recently outlined by the Centers for Disease Control, states that have higher rates of poverty (30 percent or more), and substantially lower life expectancy.
These states are, not surprisingly, the Confederate South of the Civil War years except for Virginia and Florida; along with Kentucky and Missouri, two states of the “Border” South which had slavery, but stayed loyal to the Union during the Civil War; and West Virginia and Oklahoma–therefore, a total of 13 states!
These 13 states have not only extreme poverty and lower life expectancy rates, but also high levels of poor education, higher crime rates, poor nutrition, higher unemployment, inadequate food and housing, and less access to quality health care.
And these states with the highest poverty percentages are dominated by the Republican Party, and won all of their electoral votes in 2012, and most have Republican state legislatures and Republican Governors, and elect mostly Republicans to the House of Representatives and US Senate.
Do Republicans, by their words and actions, give a damn about these horrific conditions in their states?
The answer, clearly, is NO, and no one can claim otherwise, as the reality on the ground proves this sad fact!
The question is WHY the voters of these 13 states constantly vote to send, to the state capitals and Washington, DC, individuals who show a callousness to their plight, and set out to make certain that conditions can never improve! What is in the psyche of these voters that they do not get the message that the GOP is not concerned about them, and instead works to limit the freedom and justice of African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, women, the elderly, and the young?
And, instead of wishing to make the lives of working class or poor whites better, the intention instead is to promote ignorance and fear among them to keep power, and do nothing to improve the lot in life of the citizenry of their states!
What could be more despicable and outrageous than that reality?