If, as Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing assert, the gap in income and education between predominantly Republican and Democratic counties is growing, what does that mean for us as a nation? How do we more successfully educate our people and bring prosperity to everyone? From the article:
And it isn’t just about politics. The division is also between rich and poor, between those with college educations and those without. On average, Republican communities have lower incomes and less education than Democratic communities. And those differences are growing as people migrate.
Just more than 600 counties (of more than 3,100 nationally) voted Republican more heavily in this year’s presidential contest than in 2004. The average per capita yearly income in those counties was about $18,800, according to county income tallies issued each year by the Internal Revenue Service. (Income in this article is determined by the amount of adjusted gross taxable income listed on individual tax returns from 2004-07. Per capita income equals gross income divided by the number of personal exemptions.) By contrast, those living in the 500-plus counties that voted more heavily Democratic this year than in 2004 had average personal incomes of $28,000—nearly 50 percent higher than the communities trending Republican. The most Democratic counties (those where Barack Obama won by more than 20 percentage points) had average per capita incomes of $28,207. Those counties where John McCain won by similar margins had average personal incomes of just $21,308.
Ignorant, uneducated people make decisions that are not in their, or the country’s, best interest. Thomas Jefferson said:
I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
This is our mission: to educate the public to run the country with wisdom. Education brings prosperity and peace, and helps people fulfill their pursuit of happiness. An enlightened populace will throw down tyranny and bring more liberty to all.
Urging President-elect Obama to make affordable, quality public education available to all people should rank very high on the list of tasks for his incoming administration.
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