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--:-- Georgia Howe: Are conservatives really happier than liberals? A new study offers some intriguing clues about the underlying reasons for this persistent happiness gap.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Wire, and I'm here with Georgia Howe. It's October 15th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The once-promising bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco has now languished in the planning stages for 14 years, costing billions before a single mile has been laid. What went wrong and what's being done to move the project forward now?
--:-- John Bickley: And the NFL has made some big changes and one doctor working for a team has been fired after a high-profile concussion case. Nobody wants to see players get concussed, but it's a part of the game.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A new American Family Survey has some notable findings about the connection between political ideology and happiness. The study found that those who identify as liberal are about 15 points less likely to be completely satisfied with their lives than their conservative counterparts.
--:-- Megan Basham: I'm here to explore what's driving the political happiness gap. So, Megan, studies like these always seem to spark a lot of social media commentary, but there's some pretty fascinating breakout data in this particular study.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, there is. So I think we need to start by adding the context that the fact that there is a happiness gap between left and right is actually not news. Polling companies first started surveying people about overall life satisfaction in 1972. And the results have consistently found that conservatives tend to be happier than liberals.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, the thing that has changed is theories about why that is. So some sociologists have argued that it has to do with their views on meritocracy, whether or not you think someone gets ahead by working hard, which also ties in with feelings of agency. And then religious beliefs also seem to have a strong correlation to happiness, and conservatives tend to be more religious.
--:-- Megan Basham: In 2015, Science Magazine ran a paper that essentially argued conservatives just think that they're happier. And finally, conservative commentator George Will once joked that maybe it's all this news about conservatives being happier that's depressing liberals.
--:-- Megan Basham: But the latest research has also shown some interesting dichotomies between men and women that offer some new clues about what's going on here. So both liberal men and women are less happy than their conservative counterparts, but liberal women are a lot less happy. On measures of mental health, for instance, they registered a full 20 points lower than women on the right.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, I spoke to University of Virginia sociologist and American Enterprise Institute fellow Brad Wilcox about that huge disparity and he said much of it comes down to two key areas.
--:-- Megan Basham: When you view the statistics here behind these kinds of trends what you see is that two family factors, being married and being satisfied with your family, help to explain the gap between liberals and conservatives on happiness and on health.
--:-- Megan Basham: So we see that only 36% of liberal women say that they're completely satisfied with their families compared to 61% of conservative women. And again, there's no gap as large in family satisfaction in the data as there is between liberal women and conservative women.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Wilcox points out that conservatives are about 26% more likely to be married. And they're also more likely to have children. And the latest research shows that parents are happier than non-parents.
--:-- Megan Basham: Modern progressives are statistically less inclined toward traditional marriage and family. Now, he said the question of marriage and family impacted men's happiness and mental health as well, but not as much as women. So that's where that biggest disparity lies.
--:-- Megan Basham: So left-leaning women are kind of dragging down the scores disproportionately.
--:-- Megan Basham: Correct, that's right. Now, you say they have 50 years worth of data. Has the happiness divide dovetailed with marriage rates during that whole time?
--:-- Megan Basham: Loosely, yes, it has. As the gap in marriage has been growing, so has that happiness divide. And that does seem to suggest that the difference could be coming more from how our political outlook influences us to order our personal lives.
--:-- Megan Basham: I think the problem for progressives is that they're not kind of partaking of the benefits of having a spouse, the benefits of living a family-centered lifestyle, because a lot of the values and virtues that they embrace don't point them directly in the direction of families.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, what about religiosity? I imagine that's pretty hard to disentangle from marriage rates since religious people tend to get and stay married, correct?
--:-- Megan Basham: Right, that's correct. And that's something that Wilcox and a fellow researcher have been looking at pretty closely. And it turns out those factors are tough to isolate because, as you mentioned, religious faith does tend to promote marriage and family and religiosity correlates with happiness.
--:-- Megan Basham: And by the way, that holds whatever your religious faith, whether you're Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, what have you. So maybe we need to spend more time talking about those factors being drivers of happiness than our political views.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Coming up is political infighting to blame for California's languishing billion-dollar bullet train. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter available exclusively to Daily Wire members.
--:-- John Bickley: Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: California's bullet train has turned into a logistical and administrative disaster, leaving many wondering if it will ever see the light of day. The project has been fraught with political dealings that have contributed to the issue.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to give us the details is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So Charlotte, what can you tell us about the project? Will California ever actually see this train?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It's a good question, John. California's bullet train was supposed to shuttle passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco by way of the Central Valley in around two hours and 40 minutes.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: You may have heard of the bridge to nowhere, but right now this is potentially the train to nowhere. And the artifacts of that failure massive cinder blocks dot the Central Valley of California and are daily reminders of a project that might never be completed
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The New York Times looked into the project and really found that politics is a huge reason for the train failure So take us back, how did this all start?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In 2008, Californians voted in favor of an almost $10 billion bond for the rail line, and it was supposed to be done by 2020 and cost $33 billion. Now, it's obviously 2022, and not a single mile of this project is done.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: One of the main concerns is where construction was started, in the middle, right in the Central Valley. This was a political agreement. People in favor of operating it through Central Valley cities made some compelling arguments, such as the need for employment opportunities in the area.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And because it's mainly agricultural land, so it'd be less difficult to construct it there. But this led to even more complications, right?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right. This shifted the route from the west to the east and would be expensive. It also would lead to more setbacks and issues over getting the land needed, as well as additional environmental concerns.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Here's Governor Gavin Newsom in his first State of the State address in 2019. The current project as planned would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There's been too little oversight and not enough transparency.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right now, there simply isn't a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. This summer, a deal on California's state budget provided the last $4.2 billion of that bond funding for the project and established a new inspector general role to hopefully help move things along.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: That agreement allowed this 171-mile span of the railroad in the Central Valley to continue. The state's high-speed rail authority has spent over $1.4 billion purchasing land in the middle of the state, too, which has also been a main reason for the setbacks.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So some of it is being constructed now. Yes. Some of phase one is being built, linking some cities in the center of the state. That's supposed to be done by 2030, but there are a lot of doubts if that's possible.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The final plan for the cost is now projected to be $113 billion. And no one knows where the money to connect the train to L.A. and San Francisco is going to come from.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Now, other countries have made bullet trains and been successful. So what's the main issue here?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It really looks like political infighting is to blame since that led to changes that affected the long-term success.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: SNCF, which is the French government rail operator, wanted help with the project, but when their recommendations were ignored, they pulled out of California in 2011 and began a project in North Africa.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: SNCF was able to build a fully operational bullet train in Morocco in seven years. A career project manager told The Times that SNCF left California for North Africa because it was, quote, less politically dysfunctional. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of California politics.
--:-- John Bickley: Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: The world's most lucrative sports league, the NFL, has suffered a series of PR hits over the issue of concussion protocols after an unsettling on-field collapse of a star quarterback. The league has already made some major changes that could impact the sport, and one doctor has already been fired.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to discuss is sports writer and Cranon Company co-host David Cohn.
--:-- David Cohn: Hey, John. Hi, John. So for those who haven't followed this over the last couple of weeks, catch us up to speed here.
--:-- David Cohn: Sure. So this mainly revolves around Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who took a hit about three weeks ago during the team's matchup against the Buffalo Bills.
--:-- David Cohn: He began stumbling while coming off the field and everyone watching immediately knew something was wrong Tua left the game after that play but returned for the second half after medical evaluation and managed to lead the Dolphins to a win
--:-- David Cohn: Correct. And he was cleared to play four days later, and that's where things get disturbing. He took the field against the Cincinnati Bengals in a primetime Thursday night football matchup. And during the first half of that contest, Tua was tackled and then immediately showed signs of head trauma when he raised his hands near his face mask, which is a reflex known as the fencing response.
--:-- David Cohn: Following this scary scene, Tua was carted off the field and he has not played since. Yeah, that footage is pretty hard to watch.
--:-- David Cohn: So it seems clear that Tua was not fully recovered from the hit on Sunday, yet still played Thursday night. I guess the big question here is who's at fault?
--:-- David Cohn: Yeah, and that's the overarching question. The NFL and the NFL Players Association conducted an investigation and found that protocol was followed in evaluating Tagovailoa, but also acknowledged that the outcome in this case was not what was intended when the concussion protocol was drafted.
--:-- David Cohn: The Players Association, which has long criticized these Thursday night games due to the quick turnaround, has the ability to terminate the consultant, which is called the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant in these situations. And it exercised that right by firing the neurologist who initially cleared TUA.
--:-- David Cohn: Okay, so that move was made by the Players Association, not the league. Both can do it. In this case, the NFLPA is the institution that made the decision.
--:-- David Cohn: And in addition to this firing, the NFL made revisions to its concussion protocol writ large, specifically as it relates to ataxia, which is the medical term for the poor muscle control associated with concussions.
--:-- David Cohn: This can manifest as unsteadiness or slurred speech or stumbling. So moving forward, any player who is diagnosed with ataxia will not be allowed to return to that football game.
--:-- David Cohn: All right, so changes made by the NFL. Have we seen any impact from these changes in games over the past few weeks?
--:-- David Cohn: Well, there were several roughing the passer penalties handed down this past weekend from fairly innocuous tackles. Some people around the league are calling this coincidence, but many others believe this is a direct result of the NFL attempting to fundamentally change the game.
--:-- David Cohn: Now, we had sports science creator John Brinkus on our show, Craning Company, as well as former NFL quarterback Danny Connell, on this week, and both made the same statement. Physicality is a part of football. That's why they're wearing helmets. It's why they're paid handsomely at the NFL level and now even in college to take on that risk.
--:-- David Cohn: And every player who puts on the uniform and puts on a helmet is aware of that risk. I think the NFL would be far better served to just admit it, to be like, you know what? It's a risky game, and we're trying to do our best to protect the players, but we can't protect them all the time. Deal with it.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, I guess there's just no way around it and all involved know what they're getting into.
--:-- John Bickley: David, thanks for coming on.
--:-- David Cohn: Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. Tulsi Gabbard has officially begun campaigning for New Hampshire senatorial candidate Don Boldock. Boldock has received support from former President Trump and his challenging incumbent Democrat Senator Maggie Hassan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
