LaClair: There are states bluer than New Jersey

Mr. Rose does it again, calling New Jersey “the bluest of blue states.” (Letter, Nov. 10, 2021.) If that was true, the recent elections would not have been close. A careful analysis of the facts reveals that New Jersey ranks behind twelve other states for being “blue”. (See “Which is the bluest state“, Daily Kos, August 24, 2016.) The analysis considers the key metrics, and lays it out carefully and factually.

Of course, Mr. Rose and other right wingers will dismiss this out-of-hand because it is based on facts, which is not what they wish to hear. A vast body of scientific research and literature explains this phenomenon, of people believing what they wish to believe, not what is true. This is what is destroying our country.

A prime example is the recent attempt to overthrow the government and install the defeated former-President for a second-term. The insurrection was built on a big lie – one of many told by the would-be dictator. The country will not survive that, if it persists.

The point extends far beyond Mr. Rose, to the tens of millions of so-called “conservative Republicans” who think as he does. They yell and scream that only their vision can save the country but in point of fact, they are destroying it. No country can long survive if it abandons the facts.