What we’re up against…

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… or more accurately, considering the sheer incompetence of most of the Washington Dems, here’s another side of what we’re up against, namely, in part, the ones who set the conventional wisdom that has aforementioned Dems and much of the MSM behaving the way that they do.

Daily Kos recently commissioned a poll of Republicans, and although I’m not surprised in the least, some might find rather shocking the depth of the sheer amount of ignorance and regressive thinking that typifies today’s Republicans.

A small sampling illustrates, if anything, how this bipartisan nonsense needs to be jettisoned, as it will only work when you don’t have one party completely living in the Dark Ages. The poll breaks it down into different regions as well as sex and likelihood of voting, but for brevity’s sake, have a look at some of the “all” category.

QUESTION: Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?

NO YES NOT SURE

36   42   22

QUESTION: Should public school students be taught that the book of Genesis in the Bible explains how God created the world?

YES NO NOT SURE

77   15   8

QUESTION: Should contraceptive use be outlawed?

YES NO NOT SURE

31   56   13

QUESTION: Should openly gay men and women be allowed to teach in public schools?

YES NO NOT SURE

8     73    19

QUESTION: Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

YES NO NOT SURE

63   21   16

As to that last one, it might have been interesting to see how many Republicans actually know what a “socialist” is, but that would involve a level of thinking that is probably beyond more than a few of ’em.

Not surprisingly, there’s also a lot of opposition to labor and immigration amnesty, as well. To its credit (and my surprise), a majority doesn’t believe Obama should be impeached or that he’s deliberately “wants the terrorists to win”. Now, I’ve never been a fan of Republicanism, even the Eisenhower variety, but it seems there used to be some sort of intellectual component to the party, even if I disagreed with it.

And of course, nothing says more about the current intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party than this question:

QUESTION: Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

YES NO NOT SURE

53   14   33

It’s going to be a long struggle, that much is certain. It’s hard to fight a battle of ideas when your opposition is, for the most part, impervious to facts and reasoning,and the brain trusts of that party have figured out quite well how to take advantage of that virulent anti-intellectualism and channel it into a know-nothing, angry populism. 2010’s gonna be a blast.  

10 thoughts on “What we’re up against…”

  1. “I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it”.

  2. but I was particularly drawn to the notion that fully 31% of the Republicans polled believe that contraception should be outlawed!  It kind of leads you to wonder how that segment views abortion, the likely alternative!  I have a hunch many of the respondents actually don’t know the difference and thought “contraception” was a fancy word for abortion!!

  3. Pointing and laughing ain’t gonna help Democrats, because even the ignorant (a correctable condition) and stupid (congenital disability) have voting rights.

    As Steve Benen points out in a post at 12:45 on Tuesday:

    It’s very easy to review these stunning results and think, “The Republican Party is dominated by nutjobs.” Whether that’s true or not will have no bearing on whether those nutjobs elect like-minded candidates to help run the country. (Indeed, in the same poll, 83% of self-identified Republicans said they intend to vote in November.)

    That said, the poll results are important for reasons that have nothing to do with their point-and-laugh quotient. Markos noted the practical implications: “Ultimately, these results explain why it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country.”

    Exactly. When unhinged voters send far-right lawmakers to speak on their behalf, the result is a group of Republican lawmakers who a) are nowhere near the middle; b) disinclined to compromise; and c) have to toe the party line or risk punishment from the base.

    NanuqFC

    It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. ~ Sam Adams

  6. A time traveling pollster might find similar mind boggling results traveling back

    and polling core supporters of Bush Jr.,Reagan,Nixon,Goldwater ,and Taft?  

    Palin is new.

  7. Republicans don’t believe these things because they are stupid. They believe them because the leaders of the Republican Party have been repeating these lies for years, and have no intention of stopping.

    The problem isn’t that we can’t stop our opponents from lying, it is that we have not been as effective as we need to be in getting the truth out. We can’t afford the choice of attributing rationality and intelligence to the public, as the Obama administration did when they reasoned that nobody would believe that the health care bill called for death panels so there was no need to respond to the repeated assertions when they emerged.

  8. Right on, Jack.  And let’s not forget that so much of America trusts stupidity more than intelligence.  

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