Republicans Just as Dumb/Crazy as You Think

It's time once again for fun with polling. This time around, the polling isn't exactly official, but sort of preliminary numbers and highlights from an upcoming poll. Apparently, the report isn't completely written, but some of the numbers have been released early:

Talking Points Memo:

A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, conducted among 2,000 self-identified Republican respondents nationwide, gives an interesting peek into the psyche of the minority party's base.

Kos has not yet released the full numbers, but here's some early info on the poll that he has posted on his Twitter account...

What follows is a snapshot of wingnut lunacy, gullibility, and just plain foolishness among Republican voters. With the election of Barack Obama, the right has snapped. They live in a world where opinion is fact and actual fact is a completely foreign concept. Apparently, they come to conclusions based not on proof, but in a strange and intoxicating mixture of wishful thinking and total panic.





The good news here is that on only a few issues are the majority of Republican voters completely goofy. But the minorities in all questions are substantial. And even on those issues where the majority agrees, the belief can only be described as either shockingly poorly informed or just insane.

For example, 63% of all respondents believe President Obama is a socialist. From the rhetoric I've heard, I'm not sure these people know the difference between a socialist and a communist (or a fascist, for that matter). It might pay to point out that Obama wrote a book that made him a millionaire -- if he's a commie, he really sucks at it.

Of course, some nuts believe Obama didn't write the book -- which means he hired someone to write it for him and make him a millionaire. Call it the "Sarah Palin approach to authorship." Either way, he's obviously a capitalist.

Another majority belief among Republican voters is that the President is an illegal alien. According to the report, "Only 42% believe Obama was born in the United States." This is a case of there being no proof good enough ever. This is the same mindset that gets you creationists and global warming deniers. In fact, birtherism is worse, since there are still facts to be discovered in evolution and climate -- birthers, on the other hand, literally have all the proof that exists in the world and it's still not good enough. Creationists and climate flatearthers at least have a thin reed of an argument to hide behind. Birthers have nothing. All they have is an unfounded certainty and pigheaded dedication to preserving their ignorance.

This also explains another number -- 53% believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president that Obama. If you believe that Obama's not a citizen, then this would make sense. What gets me about Palin though is that she's basically just Bush. She's an idiot someone dug up from Redstatistan, branded as the next big thing, and put out there for sale. It's not addressed in the numbers I have, but personal experience tells me that even the farthest right agree now that Bush sucked. That they can't see that Sarah Palin is just George W. Bush with eyeliner amazes me. Only on the bank bailout is any position Palin holds any different from positions Bush held. Everything that failed so spectacularly under Bush would fail just as spectacularly under Sarah Palin -- she's not magic. If you want proof that Republican voters are astoundingly dumb, that should be all you need.

And there's always the hate and bigotry. What would the Republican voting block be without that? TPM reports, "73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools. This position puts the GOP base well to the right of none other than Ronald Reagan, who helped defeat the Briggs Initiative, a 1978 referendum in California that would have forbidden gays or people who advocated gay rights from teaching in public schools."

Other fun numbers:

39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached (I'm not sure what he'd be impeached for, but I really doubt they care much)

21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election (55% say they aren't sure)

23% want to secede from the United States

31% want contraception to be outlawed

I think the point I'm trying to make here is that when I say that Republicans are lunatics, it's not hyperbole. Looking at the size of these percentages, you could grab a random Republican and find out that they believe some completely insane pile of crap most of the time. The majority of Republicans are squirrelly.

But those are numbers and math is truth, so I point you to creationism and climate and birtherism. They may be goofy, but there's no way you'd ever convince them of that.

-Wisco


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