Public Policy Polling’s latest survey of South Carolina Republicans yields some shocking results for those who assume most of their fellow Americans don’t take issue with gays living in the country and believe it was a good thing the Confederacy was vanquished 150 years ago. The poll, which involved 897 likely Republican primary voters who were contacted Sunday and Monday, revealed significant support for banning homosexuals from the country (20 percent in favor), shutting down U.S. mosques (29 percent), creating a national database of Muslims (47 percent), banning Islam (25 percent), and allowing South Carolina to hang the Confederate flag on the state capitol grounds in Columbia (54 percent). In fact, more than a quarter of respondents (30 percent) said they wished the South had won the Civil War.
Watching the GOP Presidential nomination process as it unfolds is to see a democracy not exactly covering itself in glory. More than any other Presidential election cycle in my lifetime, this time around has an air of malevolence and barely contained rage that, if ramped up even a little, might well result in mobs armed with torches, pitchforks, and rope marauding the countryside.
I write a lot about my fear for the future of this country, but PPP’s South Carolina poll leaves me terrified for America TODAY. The hatred, ignorance, and reaction evident in this survey of South Carolina’s Republicans is truly an awful thing to behold.
The Dalai Lama once said that hatred is a hard and incredibly taxing emotion, but kindness costs nothing and is easy on the soul. Despite that, it seems a distressingly large number of Americans refuse to invest even that much in extending a hand in kindness.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called 2015 a “year of enormous rage.” By SPLC’s calculations, the number of hate groups in this country rose 14% last year. It seems 2015’s “year of enormous rage” has picked up steam this year. Welcome to the “year of GINORMOUS rage,” eh?
Trump’s support in South Carolina is built on a base of voters among whom religious and racial intolerance pervades. Among the beliefs of his supporters:
-70% think the Confederate flag should still be flying over the State Capital [sic], to only 20% who agree with it being taken down. In fact 38% of Trump voters say they wish the South had won the Civil War to only 24% glad the North won and 38% who aren’t sure. Overall just 36% of Republican primary voters in the state are glad the North emerged victorious to 30% for the South, but Trump’s the only one whose supporters actually wish the South had won.
-By an 80/9 spread, Trump voters support his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States. In fact 31% would support a ban on homosexuals entering the United States as well, something no more than 17% of anyone else’s voters think is a good idea. There’s also 62/23 support among Trump voters for creating a national database of Muslims and 40/36 support for shutting down all the mosques in the United States, something no one else’s voters back. Only 44% of Trump voters think the practice of Islam should even be legal at all in the United States, to 33% who think it should be illegal. To put all the views toward Muslims in context though, 32% of Trump voters continue to believe the policy of Japanese internment during World War II was a good one, compared to only 33% who oppose it and 35% who have no opinion one way or another.
Perhaps it’s just that Republicans- especially Donald Trump and Ted Cruz- have found their target market to be those angry, low-information White Christians more comfortable with being told who to hate than with thinking for themselves. The Fox News-addicted tend to be found further down the scale when it comes to things like tolerance, acceptance, compassion, inclusion…even, sadly, intellectual agility.
The voices the people featured in the PPP poll are ones favorably disposed to (among other things):
- Believing Donald Trump when he promises to repeal marriage equality,
- Nodding in mute acquiescence when Alex Jones claims that Antonin Scalia was murdered by The Black Guy in the White House ©.,
- Agreeing wholeheartedly when Ted Cruz pledges to ban the “Gluten-free military,” (What does that even mean?) and/or
- Shouting “Hallelujah!” when Steve Quayle claims The Black Guy in the White House © had Justice Scalia murdered as a human sacrifice to Satan (Yes, some idjits actually believe that to be true).
I lack the vocabulary sufficient to the task of addressing just how patently ignorant and hateful these beliefs are…and these are but a few samples of the generalized madness gripping the Far Right. How can reasonable people hope to have a rational discussion with reactionary low-information voters predisposed to believing things that have no basis in reality? Not surprisingly, that’s an impossible undertaking.
“Why, I can believe a half-dozen impossible things before breakfast!!” (apologies to Lewis Carroll)
If your business is centered around spreading hatred, fear, and disinformation, congratulations; business is booming these days. A word of caution might be in order, though: Karma can be a real bitch.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
