ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that strong influences lock in health and behavior in the Donald Trump set of states to produce the unified geography but not in the Clinton set. In the Trump system of states, nearly all aspects of health from infant and child mortality to risk behaviors to early mortality from chronic conditions present largely the same geography. Trump-voting states with high incidence of early mortality from Alzheimer’s disease also have high incidence of early mortality from Coronary heart disease , cancer, stroke, diabetes, flu/pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , and renal failure, as well as high mortality rates of infants and children under age 14. The difference between the Trump- and Clinton-voting states goes beyond the difference in geographic consistency of the health markers. Most health markers have averages and medians significantly worse in the Trump states than in the Clinton. The Clinton system has fewer connections between health markers and socioeconomic factors than the Trump.
