Bankrate.com just published its renowned ranking of the best and worst states for retirement.  The categories rated, in order of weightings (in parentheses), include affordability (40%), wellness (25%), culture (15%), weather (15%), and crime (5%).  Conspicuously, the top five states all have Republican governors, while most of the bottom states are run by Democrats.  Moreover, much of the political machinery of the top states are Republican-run, allowing for coherent policies affecting affordability.

The top five, in descending order, are Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, and Florida.  No surprise that Florida scored very well on weather and culture, but the other four states all outperform in areas where policy can have a big impact — affordability, crime, and wellness.  While Missouri is below par on crime ratings, that was more than offset by its top rating in affordability.

Conversely, the bottom states are mostly run by the real deplorables: pandering political guttersnipes who'd take from hardworking, salt-of-the-earth Americans to ensure all manner of freebies for illegal aliens.  Indeed, sanctuary states and cities are overrepresented in the liberal laggards.

While last-placed Maryland has a Republican governor, its Senate and House have been misguided by Democrats for decades and its largest city, Baltimore, ravaged.  It is a deeply blue state, as are others in the lower reaches such as Washington, Illinois, and New York.  In fact, in a large majority of the ten lowest-ranked states, each branch of state government is controlled by Democrats.  Coincidence? 

All the bottom states ranked low on affordability, which is not shocking, considering the exodus of Americans from high-tax states.  Another coincidence?  That would be straining credibility. 

Across our vast, beautiful American expanse, there are 27 Republican governors and 23 Democrat governors.  Yet, of the ten lowest-ranked states for retirement, seven — seventy percent, that is — are run by dreadful Dems: New Jersey, California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Illinois, and New York.  Not just the governorships, mind you, but the whole political kit and caboodle are infected by Democrats.  The percentage would be even higher if "Republican" Alaska, ranked 48, is excepted due to factors beyond a politician's — or even a human's — control, such as bleak weather, isolation, and the inevitable higher costs of transportation and living.

Again, the question is plausible: is this just coincidental?  Or is causation between American-friendly Republican policies (especially on taxes, crime, and wellness) and "retire-ability" being irrevocably established?  Alarmingly, most of the lower-ranked states have deceitful Dems running for president, intent on foisting their wayward ways on our great hinterlands and fruited plains.

A while back, an astute observer on American Thinker crafted a compelling case that the best places to live tend conservative.  Furthermore, if happiness can be accurately accounted for, then adding that dimension to the retirement index makes an even stronger case for the efficacy of conservative values.  Once again, this is adeptly presented in another A.T. article.

Unsurprisingly, Americans are fleeing, en masse, the states whose citizens are being downtrodden by the dreadful Dems' anti-American agenda.  In particular, the Dems' extreme ill liberalism undermines a healthy, balanced, happy, and flourishing retirement — or even a peaceful one, if that's all one aspires to.  Their reckless regulations, their policies to restrict legitimate law enforcement, and their negligence in prosecuting many crimes all suffocate community spirit with an ominous pall.  Then there's their crushing taxes and soul-destroying identity politics.  They would also undermine our wellness by proposing unsustainable Medicare for all, and "free" services to ill educated and needy illegals who drain our finite resources.  Yep, Democrat policies favor illegals, while eviscerating retire-ability scores and happiness measures of citizens.

The well regarded 2019 Bankrate.com's retirement rankings by state are eye-popping.  They further corroborate the proposition that conservative policies impacting affordability, crime, and wellness enhance a jurisdiction's retirement hospitableness — despite the weather.  Add that to American citizens' birthright to pursue happiness — free of a grandiose government's tenacious tentacles — and the inescapable conclusions are that conservative values not only are more amenable to happiness, but also sustain the best places to retire.

Image credit: Angr (with modifications by Monica Showalter) via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.