Glenn Beck

Is an idiot (I know, no surprise). The latest example is this article, where Glenn lays the problem of poverty at the feet of the Democrats. Why? Well, Glenn notes that 10 of the top 10 cities under the poverty level have heavily favored Democratic mayors.

First of all, it’s an amazingly simple observation. It’s easy to explain why urban areas have high poverty rates: First, it tends to be more expensive to live in urban areas, so even people who make the same salary as people in non-urban, they will have a higher poverty rate. Also, since most urban areas have better (read, more progressive) services and more opportunity for work, poor people will tend to migrate there.

(And it also doesn’t explain how San Francisco, the very definition of liberal democrat, is in the top ten cities with the lowest poverty rates).

But why look at cities (other than it makes Glenn’s point seem legitimate). Don’t the state governments have more on an impact on poverty?

Lets look at the map of poverty on the state level (source, US Census)

See the deep blue? Those are the states with the highest poverty levels. Do you think these are democratic strong holds?