November 27, 2015 6:09 AM

Today on "Great Moments in Idiocracy Writ Large"

(thanks to David Flanders)

[T]op-line results are usually the most important takeaway from polls like these, that’s only part of what’s amazing about these new results. Consider this excerpt from the latest PPP report: …% [of Republican voters] overall want to eliminate birthright citizenship. 54% think President Obama is a Muslim. And only 29% grant that President Obama was born in the United States. That’s less than the 40% who think Canadian born Ted Cruz was born in the United States. Let that one roll around in your head for a moment. Nearly seven years into the Obama presidency, less a third of Republican voters believe the president was born in the United States. A significantly higher percentage believe Ted Cruz was born in the U.S - and he wasn’t.

I suppose this is what happens when you’ve worked to create a political system in which compromise is anathema, opponents are demonized, ignorance is knowledge, and destroying that opposition is of far greater importance than creating and fostering good governance. Six-plus years after Sen. Mitch McConnell stated that destroying Barack Obama was “Job One,” Republicans are still at it. Their entrenched opposition to anything that might reflect positively on The Black Guy in the White House ©- and the atmosphere of vitriol and rabid partisanship it’s created- has ground the legislative process to a halt. The federal government no longers works…because it’s being held hostage by Right-wing zealots congenitally unable to recognize the validity of viewpoints that don’t mirror their own narrow self-interest.

Democracy runs best when there’s healthy conflict between two opposing viewpoints, but Republicans in Congress have created a political landscape in which those on their side will believe the worst, most vile and baseless statements about those on the other side of the ideological spectrum. In this world, a lie can circumnavigate the globe and be on its second lap before the truth drags itself out of bed. How else might one explain these poll results? Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Ted Cruz in Calgary, Alberta, Canada…yet guess who the Far Right is beyond convinced is foreign-born and thus ineligible to be President? The Far Right lives in a world in which facts don’t matter and the only “truth” is what they can convince the American Sheeple to believe. When the #1 cable news network functions as the de facto propaganda arm for the American Taliban, what hope do reasonable, rational people have of creating a government that works for ALL Americans?

[O]nce in a while, it’s worth holding Republican voters themselves responsible. This is one of those times. I’m sure partisan tribalism plays some role in misguided attitudes, but there’s no excuse for willful ignorance on this scale.

Indeed, the same PPP survey asked Republican respondents whether President Obama is a Christian (he is). A 54% majority of GOP voters said the president is not a Christian, while 32% aren’t sure. In other words, even now, a whopping 86% of rank-and-file Republicans are skeptical of the president’s faith.

Let that roll around in your brain pan for a moment: almost nine out ten Republicans are skeptical of the Barack Obama’s faith. I lack the vocabulary to adequately express how thoroughly gobsmacked that leaves me.

How does one account for an electorate so…intellectually challenged (I’m trying to be polite and not use the first, most obvious work that comes to mind)? Is it that so many right-of-center voters have been sucking at the teat of Fox News Channel for so long that they can no longer discern truth from Right-wing propaganda? Is it that so many are capable of believing only what supports their propaganda-induced convictions, while the truth ends up on the cutting room floor? Or have we really entered a period in our history where so many low-information voters not only recognize but CELEBRATE and exalt their ignorance of facts, reality, and truth?

We have Republican Presidential candidates stating the Muslims shouldn’t be President, that Barack Obama isn’t a real Christian, that Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals, and that Planned Parenthood is little more than a front for abortion mills. Does the mainstream media call “bullshit” on any of them and debunk their claims? Of course not (WHAT Liberal media??).

Even worse, the general election is still more than 11 months away; things are only going to get worse. Don’tcha just LOVE America???

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 27, 2015 6:09 AM.

If you didn't believe Donald Trump was an authoritarian, anti-democratic demagogue before, this should convince you was the previous entry in this blog.

When you have nothing positive to offer, fear and disinformation make for a good Plan B is the next entry in this blog.

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