In Reply to: Ten years on, Brexit's economic impact is becoming clearer posted by mh on June 24, 2026 at 10:49:07
One party believes in science and doctors and thinks it’s bizarre that some people think horse paste is the solution to everything.
The other one?
“Public health disparities provide an important lens for understanding social and political change in the USA,” a recent study in the journal Nature concludes. “Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study shows that conservative Americans experienced worsening health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s.”
Yup, conservatives are sicker and die younger than those of us who aren’t as pigheaded about our health. That might seem pretty obvious as we hear conservatives consume horse paste for everything, but what is surprising about the data is this is a new phenomenon, and it’s one that predated the pandemic.
FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2021, file photo, a syringe of of ivermectin — a drug used to kill worms and other parasites — intended for use in horses only, rests on the box it was packaged in, in Olympia, Wash. On Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming the National Institutes of Health recently added ivermectin to a list of COVID-19 treatments. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Iermectin, a drug used to kill parasites intended for use in horses only, rests on the box it was packaged in, in Olympia, Wash. On Sept. 9, 2022, The AP reported on stories online incorrectly claiming the National Institutes of Health added ivermectin to a list of COVID-19 treatments. AP
Liberals and conservatives had roughly equal health outcomes as recently as the early 2010s. But by the mid-to-late 2010s, researchers saw a “substantial” divide emerge with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and strokes. COVID didn’t create the phenomenon. It just made it impossible to ignore.
The study, by Elizabeth Elder of Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution and UNC-Chapel Hill political scientist Neil O’Brian, is especially damning because it doesn’t rely on vibes or people telling pollsters how healthy they feel. Conservatives have long claimed to be healthier than liberals. But these researchers looked at actual medical data, biomarkers, and death records.
And the records tell a very different story.
The authors identify two possible causes for the recent disparity. First, less healthy people have increasingly found their way into the conservative side of the aisle. That makes sense, given how the right responded when former first lady Michelle Obama suggested that maybe children should eat a vegetable now and then. You’ll pry their Arby’s from their cold, dead hands. Literally.
But that’s only half the story. The other half is even more disturbing: Conservative politics itself may now be a health risk.
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It's a demographic problem for a party when its supporters die young.