This probably has something to do with all the studies that find, again and again and again, that liberals are less happy than Conservatives
(The Week) A sobering new study published by the Journal of Wine Economics — yes, there is a Journal of Wine Economics — finds that alcohol consumption in American states rises as the population’s politics becomes more liberal.
The study by Pavel Yakovlev and Walter P. Guessford of Duquesne University in Pennsylvania shows a direct correlation between political beliefs and the demand for alcohol. The study compares sales of alcoholic beverages against the political leanings of a state’s members of Congress, as ranked by liberal organizations Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE).
The research reveals that states with more liberal representatives like Nevada tend to consume up to three times more alcohol per head than more politically conservative states like Arkansas and Utah: (WT – including Utah most likely skews the data a bit)
The study concludes:
In this study, we show that liberal ideology has a statistically significant positive association with the consumption of alcohol in the United States even after controlling for economic, demographic, and geographic differences across states.
The article author offers two reason, per the study (I must be missing them in the paper). There’s definitely a third, that liberals are miserable people. And a forth: Liberals have no self restraint. I bet y’all can come up with a few more.
The explanation is in the paper:
Kanazawa and Hellberg (2010) find that more intelligent children are more likely than their less intelligent counterparts to consume more alcohol, tobacco, and illegal
drugs in adulthood. (J – Hence, intelligence and liberalism correlate with alcohol consumption… )
Similarly, Hodson and Busseri (2012) find that lower cognitive
ability in childhood is associated with the endorsement of right-wing ideologies such as racism and homophobia in adulthood. (J – Lower cognitive ability correlates with right-wing ideologies… )
A thought-provoking study by Eidelman et al. (2012) finds that alcoholic intoxication makes individuals more likely to agree with conservative views. (J – Drunkeness makes you more conservative!!)
Pirate: I guess conservatives aren’t smart enough to know if they are miserable or not.
Jeffery, thank you for showing us that Ignorance is Bliss.
Captain, It would be fun to make up reasons why leftists drink more. i just don’t have the time to read and analyse the study. but I wonder if it broke out the drinking patterns by type of drink — wine, beer, and liquor? and i wonder if there is a urban/rural pattern?
Just personal experience; but I was liberal, happier and stupider, drinking, in my younger years than sober. Now, in my older years, I am sober, conservative, wiser and more contented. More to do with learning, experience, and judgement than alcohol.
So that study (which isn’t the one the article is about) says that smart people will do dumb shit like drink too much alcohol, smoke, and do illegal drugs? Only in Liberal World does that make sense.
PS: based on much of Jeff’s comments, I’m pretty much spot on a liberals being miserable people.
Except, as has been seen of late, those are the bastion of liberal ideologies. It was democrats who fought to keep slavery, or prevent black freedom. It is liberals that are so scared of gays that they feel that they have to give them a federal protection status.
Right=wing’ers believe that all people are the same and should be treated the same under the law.
But then, we’ve not been a nation of laws since Socialism took root.
gumballs,
Of late, much of what you type makes little sense and is symptomatic of the rantings of someone who, at all costs, is defending a dying ideology (e.g., see david). Really, liberals are afraid of gays so we gave them federally protected status??
You intentionally conflate Democrats with liberals in history. This is a recurring theme in conservative circles these days and is a sign of mental self-preservation.
The history of racism in America is a conservative story, whether conservative Democrat or conservative Republican. I understand the desire to expunge this from conservative history but it would be more honorable to say – “We were very wrong then – but this is our latest stance, All people are the same and should be treated the same under the law.”
Not all conservatives are racists, but all racists are conservatives. From immigration reform to voter suppression to welfare reform… your fingerprints are everywhere. The right-wing elites manipulated their base to form the Tea Party, the most Caucasian, Christian, conservative and heterosexual of Americans to secure the Republican’s objective of protecting the wealthy and continuing the transfer of tax monies from the working classes to the rich. Good job.
Pirate,
I know you are, but what am I?
Let me fix this for you:
Right-wing’ers believe that all people are the same and should be treated the same under the law, except for gay people, Blacks, Muslims and women.
J-Nice try, but….wait, no- it was a horrible try. “All racists are conservatives.” Wow, I didn’t know that all those blacks who only vote for blacks were conservatives. Your data, please. Oh, wait, you’re a climate astrologer so you have no data, only the word “consensus”. “From immigration reform to voter suppression to welfare reform, your finger prints are everywhere.” So many words with so little said. What’s your point? Welfare reform, when enacted by Republicans, has always decreased welfare roles. That’s a good thing. “Voter suppression” By that I’m sure you mean voter id. You know, the voter id approved by the Supreme Court. And when put in practice has of yet to decrease minority voting percentages. “Immigration reform”. Ah, yes- when people want to uphold the law of the land and the folks on the other side are for “amnesty” and can’t debate past a high school level (that would be you, Jeffery)they resort to name-calling- hence the “racist” term. By the way, early in Obama’s first term he had super majorities in Congress, so why didn’t he enact “immigration reform” or “welfare” reform” however he wanted to? Much tougher to answer those questions than it is to put down on paper your lack of intellect, isn’t it, J? “All people should be treated the same except for blacks, gays, Muslims and women.” The laws as written include all those people- but you already knew that. It’s the liberals who play the identity politics game. J- come back when you can debate with facts like a grown-up.
jl,
I’ll debate as I choose. I didn’t say all conservatives are racists – I’m sure there are many who are not. Let’s leave determining the motivations of the modern conservative movement for always harming minorities to you. Maybe you have reasons other than hatred of the “other”. I don’t really care about conservative motives, but only about conservative policies.
In response to jl comment that Jeffery “come back when you can debate with facts,” Jeffery responded with “I’ll debate as I choose.”
There ya have it. By his own admission, Jeffery is not interested in debating with facts.