The best way to judge the merits of a social philosophy is to look at the metrics of social health in places where those policies are implemented as close to fully as might be possible. In the case of Republican social policies, we can look at the "Red" states, and try to find any patterns or similarities among them. As it turns out, these states find each other's company in many top-10 (or bottom-10 depending on one's level of optimism) lists. They get so many top-10 awards, somebody should give them an award!
Republican Top-10 Awards:
Causes of death from
Heart Disease
Mississippi 1. Alabama 2. Oklahoma 3. Louisiana 4. Arkansas 5. District of Columbia 6. Tennessee 7. West Virginia 8. Kentucky 9. Michigan 10.
Cancer
Kentucky 1. Mississippi 2. West Virginia 3. Louisiana 4. Tennessee 5. Arkansas 6. Alabama 7. Oklahoma 8. Indiana 9. Maine 10.
Stroke
Arkansas 1. Alabama 2. Mississippi 3. Oklahoma 4. Tennessee 5. South Carolina 6. West Virginia 7. Georgia 8. Louisiana 9. North Carolina 10.
Chronic Lung Disease
Oklahoma 1. West Virginia 2. Kentucky 3. Wyoming 4. Alabama 5. Indiana 6. Mississippi 7. Arkansas 8. Tennessee 9. Missouri 10.
Accidents
West Virginia 1. New Mexico 2. Kentucky 3. Oklahoma 4. Wyoming 5. Alaska 6. Mississippi 7. Tennessee 8. Montana 9. Alabama 10.
Alzheimer's
Washington 1. Tennessee 2. North Dakota 3. South Dakota 4. Arizona 5. South Carolina 6. Kentucky 7. Iowa 8. Mississippi 9. Alabama 10.
take a look yourself at these ones by clicking on the left panel links on that website I linked to in the above, and see which states you see at the top.
7. Diabetes
8. Influenza and Pneumonia
9. Nephritis/Kidney Disease
10. Blood Poisoning
11. Suicide
12. Liver Disease
13. Hypertension/Renal
14. Parkinson's Disease
15. Homicide
Another good view is to see which part of the country lights up the most for the top 15 causes of death: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/...
And the USA health maps http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/...
Other top-10 awards for Red states: lowest life expectancy, highest death rates, most uninsured, highest poverty rates, incarceration rate and number of prisoners,
No surprise here. Where there is more guns, there is more gun deaths.
Firearm death rate
Louisiana 1. Wyoming 2. Alabama 3. Mississippi 4. District of Columbia 5. Arkansas 6. Montana 7. Nevada 8. Tennessee 9. Alaska 10.
Gun ownership
1. Wyoming - 59.7%
2. Alaska - 57.8%
3. Montana - 57.7%
4. South Dakota - 56.6%
5. West Virginia - 55.4%
6. Mississippi - 55.3%
6. Idaho - 55.3%
6. Arkansas - 55.3%
9. Alabama - 51.7%
10. North Dakota - 50.7%
11. Kentucky - 47.7%
12. Wisconsin - 44.4%
13. Louisiana - 44.1%
14. Utah - 43.9%
14. Tennessee - 43.9%
16. Oklahoma - 42.9%
Of course my point is not to make fun of or laugh at the people of these states. My heart goes out to them, and I hope I will be able to do something to help them. But if these states are the model implementations of the Republican social policies, why would any other state want to follow suite and implement those policies? Are the results shown above something that other states would want to strive for? Quite the opposite, right?
Does knowing the above facts make the people of those states vote the Republicans out of office? Unfortunately not. As amazing as it is, the brain seems to be able to ignore facts, and go with what it has been conditioned to believe. It's called "brainwashing".