IQ and "Blue" Democrats

The Democratic meme of how "ignorant" the red states are continues in full force. I got an email today from an otherwise intelligent liberal colleague with a list that purports to show that blue state residents have wildly higher average IQs than red state residents. This, of course, is an Internet hoax that has long since been debunked. On its face, the list doesn't pass the smell test, with Connecticut (114 avg. IQ) and Utah (87 avg. IQ) more than a standard deviation higher and lower than the mean... it just can't happen.

But what interests me is the sudden willingness of liberals to talk about IQ. Do they really want to go there? Consider: Wisconsin is a "blue" state, OK, fine. Wisconsin also has ranked #1 in average ACT scores in the nation. Ooh, there must be a lot of smart liberals in the state, right? But where do you think those high ACT scores are coming from... Wisconsin's "blue" counties (Milwaukee County) or Wisconsin's "red" counties (say, Ozaukee or Waukesha, affluent suburbs of Milwaukee)? The data is in.... Milwaukee's kids score the lowest in the state, while the suburban kids score among the highest. But if Republicans started talking about how the average ACT scores in areas that voted predominantly, even overwhelmingly, Democratic, are very low, and using that as a rationale for somehow delegitimizing an election... well, you know what they'd be saying about us.

I do hope, however, that it makes them all feel better about themselves.

Four more years!