Bush voting states in 2000 have higher suicide rates than Gore states

[Shallah Kali]

A suicide map of the US
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/22/a_suicide_map_of_the_us/

WHEN DEMOCRATS and Republicans decided where to hold their national conventions, they probably didn't know that Massachusetts and New York have the lowest suicide rates in the nation, about 6.5 per 100,000 people per year. The national average is 10.7, and states with the biggest problem are in the 19 to 20 range.

Suicide rates in the United States generally rise as you go south and west. Earlier this year, I got interested in the exceptions to that rule, so I decided to create a map. States with lower than average suicide rates I colored blue; the rest I colored red.

And there it was: an approximation of the year 2000 presidential election map.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have lower than average suicide rates. All but one voted for Al Gore. Of the remaining 37 states, 29 voted for George W. Bush. The five states with the most lopsided Bush vote (Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, with a margin of 25 percent or more) were all among the top eight for suicide.

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This fits in with British and Australian studies from a few years back that showed higher suicide rates under conservative governments.
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Right-wing governments 'increase suicide rates'
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992817

Shaw and her colleagues found that on average, suicide rates were 17 per cent higher when the Conservatives were in power, compared to the annual average of 103 suicides per million population when opposition parties held office.

Richard Taylor and his team in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney found similar trends over the past century in New South Wales. When Right-wing governments were in power, men were 17 per cent more likely and women 40 per cent more likely to commit suicide.

They report that rates were highest whenever Right wing governments held power both at federal and state levels.

Both studies reached their conclusions after taking into account other factors that affect suicide rates, such as economic slumps, wartime, and even a surge of suicides among women in the 1960s when sedatives became widely available.

[molly]

1. Guilt?

[KurtNYC]

2. Also "apparent" suicides go up

Former Enron Corp. vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter was found dead in his car in a Houston suburb early Friday, the victim of an apparent suicide, police said. ...In weeks before his death, Senate subcommittee subpoenaed Baxter documents and House committee investigators tried to arrange a meeting with him.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/25/enron.suicide/

[Proud2BAmurkin]

3. I'd kill myself if I voted for Bush*

.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. i wonder

if the people killing themselves are folks who would probably fit in better if they lived in blue states?

[AirAmFan]

5. Easier access to guns in Red states, which tend to be less urbanized?

[TheRovingGourmet]

6. Southern states tend to attract the elderly also. They are one

"hump" of the bi-modal suicide graph.