Poorly educated whites dying early

In a report today, John Webster comments:

Trump country dodged a bullet last week – a bullet fired by the Republicans elected to represent it.

From Eastern Washington to Appalachia, the people of Trump country are dying – at an extraordinary rate, according to a new research paper from Princeton University.

Who are these victims? And why are they dying?

The victims are whites who did not attend college. This is a group, according to studies of the 2016 election, that sided strongly with President Donald Trump.

The reason for the worsening mortality, according to the research, is “despair” – manifested in abnormally high rates of suicide, opioid overdoses and alcohol-related liver disease. More here.