The thing that strongly stands out with Red states, especially states where Christian Nationalism is particularly strong, and Utah is essentially a theocracy controlled by the LDS (Mormon) church, is that they endless rant on about how strongly they support families, yet the truth is it is all a lie. Red states have higher maternal and infant mortality. They have a higher rate of divorce, a higher rate of out of wedlock births, a higher rate of divorce, poorer child care, poorer education and on and on. Utah particularly stands out. In addition to all that Utah has the highest rate of porn viewing — indeed an ex-Mormon reader told me there are even special Mormon porn channels. The state also has a terrible record on climate change. It is so bad, in fact, that the Great Salt Lake is disappearing, and because Utah had such poor pollution policies the exposed soil of the drying lake is filled with arsenic that is now blowing around Salt Lake City with all kinds of bad health consequences. States controlled by Republicans always have inferior social wellbeing. (See the SR archives, and watch the SR podcasts for the proof of what I am saying.)
The Brigham City Utah LDS Temple Credit: Sarabeth Maney
For nearly a year, Melanie Call struggled to balance working from home full time with caring for her new baby.
Her job as a project manager for a Salt Lake City health care staffing agency required spending hours in video meetings. If her son was awake, she would turn off her camera. When he woke from a nap while she was already occupied in a meeting, she would feel her guilt grow as she heard him cry through a baby monitor.
Call, who is married to an architectural designer, had an older daughter in elementary school and a younger daughter already in day care, and wasn’t sure she could afford to send another child.
Having two children in day care would have consumed nearly 20% of her family’s take-home pay, despite her and her husband making six figures combined. Eventually, she put her son on three waiting lists for day care, but before she could find an opening she reached a breaking point and quit her […]
