Practicing What We Preach?

It's not often that we wax philosophical here at My Rural America. Mostly, we're about facts and how the facts affect our rural families, so we're not about to start preaching now while Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV) make the news as they join the ranks of other elected officials who have shamed their families.

However, there are several new studies out that focus on numbers of divorces, teenage pregnancies and pornography readers. Until now, we hadn't connected the dots to how states vote and where families are strongest -- moderate and liberal voting states, but see below for some serious detail to help you get started thinking:

• USA TODAY 2008 Poll: 54% of Americans say they know someone who has been unfaithful.
• Guttmacher Institute 2006 Data: Pornography more prevalent in states where "more people agree that 'I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage.'"
• US Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract: States that voted for conservative Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in November 2008 had the highest divorce rates in 2006.

For more details about how conservatives are struggling with the matters they preach about the most, "The Prurient Trap" by NY Times Op Ed writer Charles M. Blow brings a spotlight to the families, and also a really good chart so that you can see where your state falls in the statistical research.

What's most interesting to us is how these conservative states -- states with the highest divorce rates, highest number of teenage pregnancies and the most people sitting around reading pornography -- also have the most elected officials who continually vote to make things more difficult for families.

For 2008, this meant these officials were most likely to votes against State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and most likely to vote to kill the New GI Bill. For 2009, these same officials are more likely now to be dragging their feet on health care for all. Why? Let us know your comments.