Illustration by Josh Hagler

One of the political science courses I took last semester was Political Science 201: Intro to American Government. Out of the requirements of the class, one was a weekly homework assignment dealing with a very interesting and insightful computer program called "MicroCase Student Explorit." This program deals with facts and figures taken from countries around the world, all 50 U.S. states and a random sampling of American citizens across the country.

One of the capabilities of this program is to combine two random variables and discover whether there is a connection between the two. So I, for the dual purpose of composing a column and satisfying some of my own curiosities, did some independent research via this program, specifically cross-tabulating a given state's political ideology and its statewide policies to see if there is any relevant correlation.

I've never bought into the stereotypes of the typical liberal and conservative. I know that while most conservatives aren't redneck, pick-up-driving, confederate-flag-hoisting, shotgun-in-the-back-seat morons from the deep South, most liberals don't fit the long-haired, tree-hugging, hemp-smoking, beat-up-Volkswagen-with-a-"Nader-LaDuke"-bumper-sticker-driving stereotype either.

But that's basic stuff. I wanted to delve a little deeper into some of the more subtle myths and misconceptions of American political ideology.

Many of the results surprised me a little, as I imagine many of them will be somewhat surprising to you. So I thought I'd share them with the rest of the class, as it were.

One more thing: For the most part, I've decided to exclude my own comments from the statistics, as I believe that, as startling and ridiculous as some of these stats might be, one should draw his or her own conclusions. They may or may not be similar to my own.

Let's start with the basics. First, it should come as little surprise that the more liberal a state - i.e. the more people polled in a given state who described themselves as liberals - the higher its state taxes. However, the statistics also reveal that the more liberal a state, the greater the state debt.

It also appears that the most left-leaning states spend a great deal more than states that aren't as liberal, regardless of the financial situation of their citizens.

For instance, the more liberal a state, the more of the state's funds that are spent per pupil, and the greater percentage of the population with a college degree. However, there is no connection between liberalism and unemployment rates; in other words, more money spent per pupil does not lead to a higher percentage of employed citizens in the state.

And although there is no discernible connection between liberalism and unemployment, more money is spent per capita on unemployment benefits, food , and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in liberal leaning states.

Further, the program shows that the more liberal a state, the lower the percentage of the state's population is below the poverty line, while more conservative states have a lower per capita income. While this is somewhat surprising, it should also be noted that liberal states have a greater percentage of its citizens on welfare.

Focusing more on conservatives now, one might think, as I did, that more conservative-leaning states would spend more of their state budgets on defense and prisons. Not so.

There is absolutely no connection between conservative states and per capita military and defense spending. Beyond that, the program shows that the more liberally inclined a state, the more of a state's budget is spent on correctional facilities. In fact, Massachusetts, far and away the most liberal state in the nation, spends the fifth-highest percentage in the country of state and local tax dollars on prisons.

And to those who loathe the thought of urban sprawl, consider that there is no distinguishable pattern between new homes built in a given state within the past 20 years and that state's ideology.

One more fun fact: The more liberal a state, the greater the sales tax on cigarettes. That one didn't surprise me, but I just thought I'd throw it in here for the benefit of all UA smokers out there.

Interesting stuff, huh? I think there are some rather obvious truths within the information that one might not expect. But come up with your own conclusions and conspiracy theories. I'm all out of space.