May 19, 2015 5:52 AM

Study: One in three Republicans believes in Santa Claus...and that puppies can cure cancer

A new survey from Public Policy Polling finds [PDF] that one-third of Republicans believe the Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theory that “the government is trying to take over Texas,” and another 28 percent of GOP voters haven’t made up their minds yet about the matter. The right-wing frenzy over an upcoming military exercise called Jade Helm 15 has swept up the Republican governor of Texas and several other GOP leaders who wonder if the drill is part of a plan by President Obama to seize Texas, impose martial law, confiscate firearms and throw conservatives into closed Walmart stores that have been converted into FEMA camps. Among Republicans, PPP found that supporters of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz were most likely to believe the conspiracy theory.

It seems the older I get, the less I understand…and by that I mean I’m having trouble fathoming a world in which Idiocracy appears not to have been a fictional movie at all, but instead a documentary about they direction this country is heading. That there really are a substantial number of Americans predisposed to believe that Barack Obama plans to use Jade Helm 15 (an Army Special Forces training exercise) as a pretext to invade south Texas is preposterous on its face. That people in south Texas are actually arrogant enough to think there’s anything in their midst that would entice the The Black Guy in the White House © to violate the Constitution by invading them defies rational understanding. Evidently, Conservative White Folks distrust The Black Guy in the White House © so much that they’d believe virtually any scurrilous rumor…because they hate him Just. That. Much. Really? One-third of Republicans believe Obama is planning to invade south Texas?? Have you ever been to south Texas? There’s no “there” there (apologies to Gertrude Stein).

some folks will believe just about anything if it can be blamed on The Black Guy in the White House © in some shape, manner or form. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised, seeing as how a third of Louisiana Republicans blame The Black Guy in the White House © for the government’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina…in 2005. That he didn’t even take office until January, 2009, seems not to matter to the maroons. REAL ‘Mericans know who’s responsible.

Along the same anti-intellectual, brain-dead lines, 49% of Republicans don’t believe in evolution. As if that wasn’t depressing enough, 57% of Republicans support doing away with the 1st Amendment’s Exclusion Clause and making Christianity the official national religion…because Sharia, don’tchaknow??

How can we have any hope of having a rational discussion about the direction this country is heading if many of those on the right side of the ideological spectrum have no knowledge of or commitment to the truth? How do you have a rational debate with someone who has no foothold in reality? How you talk to someone on ANY level when then deny the validity of empirical, demonstrable scientific fact…but hew to their faith as if their very life depended on it?

The truth is, of course, that you can’t. As much as I might like to have an IQ (and grip on reality test) to separate out truly stupid people, I understand that our democracy depends on free and unduly burdened access to the voting booth. Of course, it also depends on an informed electorate, but far too many Americans have ceded that responsibility to Fox News Channel, the Drudge Report, and other Right-wing “news” outlets. Thus has the tenor of our public discourse been dumbed down to its current sorry state. Why should any good, red-blooded, Conservative, God-fearing, Christian American patriot have to think for themselves when Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, and Bill-o the Clown will tell them what to think and who to fear?

Is it any wonder that I fear for the future of the Republic?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 19, 2015 5:52 AM.

A primer on our pointless existence was the previous entry in this blog.

Don't give up is the next entry in this blog.

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