Those Dangerous Republicans !

Are Republicans dangerous to your health? James Gilligan thinks so -- at least the ones who get elected president. Gilligan, a psychiatrist and professor at New York University, has written a book that ought to make some right-wing heads explode. In his book, Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others, Gilligan says that Republican presidents are more dangerous to the population at large than Democratic presidents.

That may sound like a slightly outrageous statement, but Gilligan claims to have the statistal proof that it is true. He looked at the rates of murder and suicides over the last hundred years and found a rather strange pattern.

According to Gilligan, when a Republican is elected president the murder and suicide rates start to rise, and they remain at epidemic levels as long as a Republican is in the White House. He says, "The increase began during their first year or years in office, and peaked in their last year or years."

When a Democrat is elected president the reverse happens. The rate of murders and suicides begins to fall when a Democrat enters the White House and is at its lowest level during the last year they are in office.

Is this just a weird anomaly? Gilligan says no. He claims it happens "with a magnitude and consistency that could not be attributed to chance alone". He used an investigative technique like the one used to show that cigarettes have a link with lung cancer, and says, "As cigarette smoking has been shown to increase the rates of lung cancer, so the presence of a Republican in the White House increases the rates of suicide and homicide."

Why would this happen? Here is what he thinks:

The cause: policies. In Gilligan’s view, the policies of Republican administrations increase socio-economic distress which has all sorts of ramifications that lead to higher rates of murder and suicide, while Democratic administrations reduce socio-economic distress which aids the psychology of the masses and brings down the levels of violence.

I think he may have a point.