I Can't Believe This State Isn't in Ruins

Here are some handy statistics about one of our 50 states. Without skipping ahead, see if you can guess which of the 50 it is:

Current unemployment rate: 6% (solidly below the national average of 8.2).

Current teen birth rate per 1,000 population: 17 (national average is 34).

Infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births): 5 (national average is almost 7).

Incarceration rate per 100,000 residents: 200 (TX is 640, AZ is 570, national average is 497).

Median income: $60,000 (national average is $50,000).

Marijuana possession is now a civil matter, unless obvious distribution is going on.

Representation over the last six years: mostly Democratic at both the state and federal level.

Care to guess?

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Meet Massachusetts, a state which, since 2006, has had near-universal healthcare, by way of an insurance mandate, as well as same-sex marriage.

Interestingly, these two achievements were unique at the time of their passage, and were passed under the "severely conservative" Mitt Romney.

In spite of all the RWNJ Chicken Littles out there, during six years of near-universal healthcare and full marriage equality, Massachusetts hasn't slid into the Atlantic or been swallowed by a huge sinkhole. Nor has their job market been destroyed. Nor have we seen employers fleeing the state to escape the burdens imposed by Romneycare. The essential moral character of the state is quite intact. We aren't seeing unusual levels of crime, incest, rape, murder, etc.

Their healthcare system is working very well and hasn't stifled economic activity, though its per-capita cost is somewhat higher than the national average. Marriage equality for loving couples hasn't destabilized the whole state, and it doesn't seem to have destroyed the marriages of Massachusetts heterosexuals.

Chew on that, NOM/GOP/FOX/CPAC/AFA/etc.

Massachusetts: a great place to live since Romney left office there. I'm thinking there's a lesson in all this, and I hope it doesn't take a four-year failboat of a Romney presidency for us to learn said lesson. Mr. Severe Conservative has sworn to dump ACA, fight SSM, regressively tax, maintain marijuana laws, and do everything he can to protect the wealthy and Wall Street.