MagaNomics: The One Way Road to Miserable Poverty

Turn America into Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Arkansas, or Alabama

HH is Household median income

More than two million people live under the poverty line in these five states, which is roughly one out of every six residents. It's easy to see why this is the case. These states are consistently governed by the GOP and often rank at the bottom in terms of educational attainment. But how does the GOP deflect attention from their poor governance? The best strategy is to attack California, a state where one out of every eight residents lives in poverty, despite being much larger than these five states combined.

By constantly staying on the offensive, the GOP can mask its failures in governance. This is the kind of America they want to build—state by state, county by county, precinct by precinct. More than half the country continues to tell pollsters that the GOP is great for the economy.

But here's the irony: what they have failed to do for these five states, where they've held power for decades, they promise to accomplish for the entire country—presumably with a magic wand. Under-educated and struggling Americans are the ideal audience for the endless flow of misinformation from Fox News and the right-wing media. The GOP has become so adept at this that they've managed to extend their reach to educated Americans as well. While their success rate may be lower in that demographic, it's starting to gain traction.

Millions of educated Americans also believe the GOP is good for the economy. If that's true, then why does West Virginia—a state with a GOP governor for decades and massive support for Donald Trump—have 300,000 people living below the poverty line? Why does Louisiana have an educational attainment rate of just 24%, a full ten percentage points below the U.S. average? Why does Arkansas have a median household income of only $52,000, $14,000 less than the national average?

And why would people in these states believe tariffs are beneficial for their future when they would likely harm them instead? Why would they believe Donald Trump when he claims the 2020 election was stolen, yet says nothing about election integrity when he wins in 2024? Of course, they believe whatever he says—because he’s not the only one saying it. He has a vast network of people repeating the same lies over and over, until those lies start to feel like the truth.

The entire line is connected. A leads to B and B leads to C.

• Stuck: Individuals with lower levels of education tend to earn less and have fewer job opportunities. In states with high poverty rates, the lack of educational opportunities limits people's ability to access higher-paying jobs, often trapping them in low-wage positions or making them more vulnerable to unemployment.

• Intergenerational Poverty: Low educational attainment contributes to a cycle of poverty that is passed down through generations. Children in families with low educational attainment are more likely to have lower academic performance themselves, leading to lower graduation rates and diminished prospects. This creates a cycle where future generations struggle with the same issues.