Dan Froomkin flagged an interesting new poll conducted by YouGov, put together by a Dartmouth professor. Yes, the Republicans are still completely misinformed:
Apparently vast numbers of Republicans really do believe those lies. I don’t know what to say. The poll does indicate that Republicans pay closer attention to the news and world events than Democrats, so this is probably just more proof of a professionally mendacious right wing media.
In light of that idiocy, what’s more surprising is that the rest of the poll isn’t just useless gibberish. It’s quite revealing, actually. Republicans and Democrats agree on an awful lot, more than I expected frankly. They share priorities in many cases and only differ on the margins about a number of issues. But where they disagree tells us much about our gridlock.
Take this for example:
That’s right. 53% of Republicans will not stand for any tax increases or any cuts to the military, social security and medicare. And yet, they are obsessed about the debt.
Over and over again you see that Republicans desire a first world society and a major military empire, but refuse to pay for any of it. Many Democrats obviously also want to remain “number one” but in far fewer numbers and with at least some acknowledgement of the costs.
I am far more suspicious of the credibility of the 30% of Republicans who’ve suddenly become anti-war than the Democrats who are against the war but will vote for Obama anyway. It’s not like there’s a huge shift in supporting the war on its merits and, after all, their other choice is someone who isn’t going to have a better policy. The Republicans, on the other hand, have only decided to hate this war since a Democrat started waging it.
Across the board the Republicans are more blood-thirsty, but Independents and Democrats aren’t exactly pacifists. The vast majority of Americans are chauvinists, no matter what political stripe. But where there are differences, they are fairly profound:
In other words, 70% of Republicans think that our foreign policy is not a reason for terrorism, that we are hated just because we’re us. As George W Bush famously said:
You know, I’m asked all the time — I’ll ask myself a question. (Laughter.) How do I respond to — it’s an old trick — (laughter) — how do I respond when I see that in some Islamic countries there is vitriolic hatred for America? I’ll tell you how I respond: I’m amazed. I’m amazed that there is such misunderstanding of what our country is about, that people would hate us. I am, I am — like most Americans, I just can’t believe it. Because I know how good we are, and we’ve go to do a better job of making our case.
We’re good. They’re evil. We just need to make everyone understand that.
Oh and about that “liberal” label nobody wants? Well, when you ask the question with a little bit more nuance, it turns out that almost half of Democrats do consider themselves liberal after all. It’s not the same as the large majority of Republicans who call themselves conservatives, but then there hasn’t been a 30 year campaign to turn the word into an epithet either.
We’re not quite as marginal as people are intent upon believing we are.
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