According to a new study, most liberals report "poor" or "fair" mental health. On "The Right Squad," the panel discusses the striking correlation between political ideology and mental health.

Washington

A study referenced by political analyst Nate Silver indicates a significant correlation between political ideology and self-reported mental health. According to the data, 51% of conservatives describe their mental health as excellent, compared to only 20% of liberals. Conversely, 45% of liberals report poor mental health, while only 19% of conservatives do so. 

The panel discussion on 'The Right Squad' examined possible reasons for these differences, including lifestyle factors such as marriage, children, and religious involvement, which are more prevalent among conservatives and associated with higher reported happiness. The conversation also touched on the Democratic Party's declining advantage among the middle class and challenges in appealing to young men, as recent polling shows a narrowing gap between parties on issues traditionally dominated by Democrats.

Study links mental health to party affiliation

Does political ideology have any correlation with a person's mental health? In a new post on his blog Silver Bulletin, political analyst and data guy Nate Silver notes a 2022 study that shows higher self-reported mental health correlates with conservative political views. Shocker! In that study, 51% of conservatives report excellent mental health as opposed to just 20% of liberals who describe their mental health as excellent. The data also shows that 45% of liberals report their mental health as poor, while just 19% of conservatives feel that way. So Tiana, do you think, why do you think liberals don't have a great mental health? Are they too worried about society's big issues and climate change? I want to warn you, we only have a few minutes, Tiana, because we could go for three hours on this one. Everything that leftists like to blame on capitalism is actually just the reality that humans are charged with prolonging their own existence, right? So everything is trauma, everything is trauma, your parents giving you a timeout is trauma, a guy asking you out on a date is oppression, and all of a sudden you're, you know, 56 alone with your cat and you realize like, oh wait, maybe the way that we did things for thousands and thousands of years, there was some virtue in the philosophy behind it. And like, you know, it was a very big tell in the election when Kamala Harris cut that ad with Julia Roberts narrating saying, oh, women, your husbands won't know who you vote for. You can secretly vote for Harris. Like, that's what they think a marriage is like. Yeah. Well, Silver reported to the study on mental health in his blog, I guess they're still around, about why many young men don't like Democrats. One of the reasons, he writes, is quote, instead of being the party of fat cats and crazy uncles, which is how my generation of liberal-ish men tend to do stereotype Republicans, the GOP can at least sort of claim to be the party of risk-taking entrepreneurship and rocket ships to Mars. But former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, remember him? He says there's a different reason why Trump, President Trump, does so well with those young men. I think Donald Trump understands belonging, understand groups. I mean, you look at it. He gives them a uniform, the red hat. He gives them some chance, some talking points, whatever. It's not that all that different than when we build sports teams in high school. You belong, you're part of this. It's not so much the policies. I think it's incredibly dangerous, but I don't think we went out to get them. We didn't out to make them feel a part of this. So, Elizabeth, how do you think Democrats can get out of this hole and get back young men? Because do you think Republicans will just have a lock on them forever? Well, they certainly are not going to get there with Tim Walz. I think the last election proved that for us. He has said that he thinks he was chosen to get the white male vote or something like that, and clearly he failed at that. If we look at the poll numbers, I think that as we've discussed on the show in the past, the Democrats said they're spending $20 million to study what young men are interested in, and they found its authenticity. Clearly, there's just some kind of dissonance here between what young men are looking for and what the Democrats are willing to offer. I think it's kind of a chicken-egg thing here, though, with the mental health issue. I mean, if you're married and you have children, you're more likely to be happy. I mean, that's just proven. And, by the way, you're more likely to be a conservative if you're married and you have children. So, I mean, really, the bigger question is, why should we be taking advice from Tim Walz about how to attract young men? Well, yesterday, we showed you CNN's Harry Enten's shock at how bad Democrats are polling on the economy. But it gets worse for the party. Historically speaking, which is the party of the middle class has been a huge advantage for Democrats. I have polling from NBC going all the way back since 1989, when Democrats had a 23-point advantage. 2016, a 17-point advantage. But by this decade, we already started seeing declines back in 2022, where you saw that Democrats led, but only by four points, well within the margin of error. And now, in our latest CNN poll among registered voters, which is the party of the middle class? It is tied? This, I think, speaks to Democratic ills more than anything else. They have traditionally been the party of the middle class. No more. Donald Trump and the Republican party have taken that mantle away, and now a key advantage for Democrats historically has gone adios amigos, and now there is no party that is the party of the middle class. So, do you think if Democrats went to a party of abundance and cutting regulations, would that solve their problems for us? Well, I got to tell you, the study also found that if you were grounded in religion, if you had faith, if you belonged to a church, and if you're married like a normal person, that you'd be much happier. But with Democrats, you know, dog is their co-pilot, and they don't know what a woman is. Well, you know, I think there's a lot of, you know, calling childless tat ladies. That was a big mess-up for J.D. Vance.

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Ottawa

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Birmingham

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Zaporizhzhia

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Breakdown