As the country emerges from the economic ravages of the shutdowns and lockdowns imposed for a lot longer than the initial “two weeks to flatten the curve” (remember that lie?), we’re starting to get a better look at just how bad it was and which parts of the nation suffered the most.
But we’re also beginning to see the political effects as well, and Americans should really take note of that as we move out of this pandemic (and before the next one hits — there’s always a next one).
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“States that voted for President Joe Biden in the last election lost more than twice the number of jobs during the pandemic on average during the pandemic than states who voted for former President Donald Trump, according to a recent study,” Breitbart News reported.
An analysis by the UK’s Daily Mail noted that between February and December 2020, states that voted for Biden saw unemployment rates rise on average to 6.2 percent, while states that went for Trump averaged 2.5 percent lower.
What’s more, the 13 states that experienced the lowest overall unemployment rates are all very strongly Republican and were led by Alaska and Utah, where employment increased 0.7 and 0.3 percent respectively.
Two more red states — Kansas and Idaho — saw no change in their employment levels.
Meanwhile, sates 13 of 14 states where pandemic job losses were the most significant went for Biden, led by Nevada (10.2 percent of jobs lost) and Hawaii (9.3 percent of jobs lost).
One red-state exception was Iowa, which lost 7.9 percent of its jobs.
Now, a number of the blue states, especially Nevada and Hawaii, depend heavily on tourism, and of course, travel during the pandemic was greatly limited. Hotels and casinos in Vegas and Hawaii were closed for months.
But those decisions were made by Democratic officials, and by comparison, Florida — another tourism-dependent state with a high senior population — did not fare as badly (6.3 percent job losses) because, many believe, GOP Gov. DeSantis began reopening late last summer instead of waiting longer like the blue states did.
Breitbart added:
Another report from Reason explains why the difference in jobs lost is not because of the pandemic itself. The report points to states like Hawaii, which “is not just the job-loss leader; it’s also the state with the least mortality from the pandemic,” The report added, “New York is third in job loss, second in death rate.”
The report shows the job losses are from the difference in how the states handled the “restrictions on businesses and school closures.”
“Blue-state governors in California and New York and Michigan have been far more strict about shutting down economic and physical activity than their red-state counterparts in Florida, South Dakota, and Texas,” the report noted further. “The comparative death tolls are roughly the same (California tracks with Florida, New York with South Dakota, and Michigan with Texas); the economic performances are anything but.”
So, any way you look at it — economically, death rates, liberty scores — red states that supported Donald Trump, by far, fared much better during the pandemic than did those that voted for Biden.
These are important lessons moving forward that Americans who love liberty and prosperity cannot afford to forget.
h/t: Trending Politics
