Blogblah
I am interested in policy and politics in a way few people share. I try not to bore the few readers I have with much about politics when there are no elections at hand, my frequent posts about the presidential election of 2008 nonwithstanding.
However, I read about politics and policy every single day and I get upset and I have strong opinions whether I blog about them or not.
I didn’t write about the State of the Union Address because I figured anybody who cared about it had better sources than me. I didn’t write about Obama’s Q&A with Republicans last week for the same reasons.
Today, I can’t help myself.
Markos Moulitsas, better known as “kos”, the publisher of the left wing site The Daily Kos, recently commissioned a poll of self-identified Republicans by Research 2000. Some 2,000 Republicans from across the nation were live interviewed. The results of this poll are startling and disturbing — and hilarious and sad and maddening.
The poll and its “crosstabs” (the really, really wonkish part) are available HERE and I really recommend it to you.
Some 39 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached and another 29 percent aren’t sure. His high crime or misdemeanor? Who knows? A clue can be found in another finding: 63 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist. WTF? Do they know the meaning of the word? Well, since McCain said he was a socialist, that must be it.
Significant numbers of Republicans think Obama was not born in the U.S. and wants the terrorists to win, but then about a quarter of Republicans would like to see their state secede from the Union (I thought we’d settled that in 1865).
More than half of Republicans (53%) believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President and 31% believe Obama is a racist who hates whites while another 33% aren’t sure whether he’s a racist who hates whites.
More than 3/4s of Republicans (77%) believe that public schools should teach Genesis in science class. I find that gobsmacking.
For some real gobsmacking, however, try this: a third of Republicans (34%) believe the birth control pill is abortion, more than 3/4s believe abortion is murder (76%), and nearly a third (31%) would outlaw all contraceptives.
I just don’t know what to say about that.
How can we have a reality-based dialogue with these people? How willfully ignorant are they? I’m at a loss for words, despite having just written a couple hundred about this.
Blogblah
Bu li mic, there is no plumbing the depths of willful ignorance and I suspect that your muted cries for reality-based dialogue might only just faintly echo into the unbounded shallowness that looms behind its illusory facades where deaf and blissful somnolence rules supreme. I’m kinda at a loss for words, too…uhhhmmm…
IMHO, gobsmacking-WTF?-induction is THE intended purpose of political theater which owes its continued existence to sustaining the myth that it’s a swell idea to sign up and pitch one’s tent in either of two (apparently) warring encampments which are both sadly situated well within the boundaries and gripping tendrils of Camp Matrix.
The asinine policies clearly posted at the front gate were enough to convince me to turn away a long time ago. Nevertheless, I still have to admire your intestinal fortitude shown in efforts to make some kind of rational sense of it all. I usually just run a finger down my throat.