Some neighbor of mine should take a picture of a tipped trash bin and send it into the White House with the caption "view from my window in Ilhan Omar's district"—or perhaps to Fox News, the better to get it to Trump's attention quickly. Seems like a good way to raise the profile of Minneapolis. Trump will tweet about it, and then from coast to coast people will be googling up the census tract information on Minnesota's fifth congressional district. They'll see that we compare favorably to, say, everywhere in Kentucky, notwithstanding the long stewardship of Mitch McConnell.
But it would be misleading to pick on just one red state for its troubles. Here are the ten states with the highest percentage of residents living in poverty.
1. Mississippi
2. New Mexico
3. Louisiana
4. West Virginia
5. Kentucky
6. Alabama
7. Arkansas
8. Oklahoma
9. South Carolina
10. Tennessee
Trump won nine of them. Eight have Republican governors. Since nine have a majority of Republicans in both houses of the state legislature, it follows that in eight of the ten Republicans are in complete control of state government. Of their 20 US Senate seats, 16 are held by a Republican. There are 54 congressional districts in the ten states and 42 of them are represented by a Republican.
Here are the ten states with the lowest percentage of residents living in poverty:
41. Massachusetts
42. Colorado
43. North Dakota
44. New Jersey
45. Utah
46. Connecticut
47. Minnesota
48.Hawaii
49. Maryland
50. New Hampshire
Trump lost eight of these. Their governorships are split evenly, five for each party, and their state legislatures are likewise mixed: in four, Democrats control both houses, and, in two others, each party controls one chamber. Of the 20 US Senate seats, 15 are held by Democrats. The states have between them 58 seats in the House of Representatives, 46 of which are held by Democrats.
If you subscribe to the view that the 50 states are laboratories of democracy, testing what kinds of policies work and which fail, it's pretty clear that, with respect to combating poverty and creating opportunities for people—well, let's just say that I don't think Republicans want to universalize the logic that holds Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, responsible for Baltimore's challenges.
Comments