The Kos poll of Republicans: The wingnuts are even nuttier than you think.

[BurtWorm]

This is from Political Animal by Steven Benen:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022208.php

WHAT THEY'RE THINKING.... Markos Moulitsas commissioned a fascinating poll in January, getting a better sense of exactly what rank-and-file Republicans are thinking nationwide.

...I'm putting the finishing touches on my new book, American Taliban, which catalogues the ways in which modern-day conservatives share the same agenda as radical Jihadists in the Islamic world. But I found myself making certain claims about Republicans that I didn't know if they could be backed up. So I thought, "why don't we ask them directly?" And so, this massive poll, by non-partisan independent pollster Research 2000 of over 2,000 self-identified Republicans, was born.

The results are nothing short of startling.

Quite right. A plurality of rank-and-file Republicans wants to see President Obama impeached. More than a third of self-identified Republicans believe he wasn't born in the United States. A 63% majority is convinced the president is a socialist, about a fourth believe he wants terrorists to be successful, and about a third think Obama is a racist who hates white people.

Nearly a third of Republicans think contraceptive use should be outlawed.

More than three-quarters of Republicans want public schools to teach children that the book of Genesis "explains how God created the world."

A third of Southern Republicans want to see their state secede from the union.

...


The actual poll results are here:

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/31/US/437

[hobbit709]

1. Can we have competency hearings now?

This is proof that these people live in a state of delusion and are a danger to themselves and others.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Clearly, it was the North that lost the Civil War.

[Winterblues]

It was the War of Northern Aggression

The North attacked poor old South without any cause and took away their "State's Rights" :shrug:

[FiveGoodMen]

10. I've heard pukes on TV call it that during the past decade.

[JohnnyBoots]

46. You mean,'The war of Southern Stupidity' They did fire on Ft Sumter first after all.

[gordianot]

13. One of the times Chris Matthews (Tweety) is correct.

I quote; "Republicans have gone from being the Party of Lincoln to the Party of the Confederacy". Political reactions in 21st Century America reminds me of the attitudes of 1860 if not the actual details. Historian Shelby Foote would recognize where we are today if he were alive.

[MorningGlow]

3. I'm betting 100 percent of Democrats

want these Republicans to secede from the union.

[polichick]

5. Either that or raptured! nt

[HopeHoops]

6. I certainly wouldn't go to war to get them back - bye!

[indy legend]

33. I don't know.

At this point I might be in favor of us seceding from the union and letting them have the mess they and their hero Ronald Reagan's policies have created.We just might be better off starting from scratch and letting them finish destroying what they have. We just have to make sure we put up a border fence between us and them to keep them out when that 7 watt light bulb above their head finally come on. Reagan and daddy Bush broke it and Clinton had to fix it. GW broke it again and now they refuse to let Obama fix it. Let them finish the job so than can all be the happy little corporate slaves they secretly want to be. Let them have Cheney as their King, Sara Palin as their Queen and Pat Robertson as their spiritual adviser. As long as they have a constant IV drip of Rush, Hannity , Beck and Fox News they will be happy. As long as I don't have to interact with them I'm happy. At this point I see it as a win, win. I'm a pretty optimistic person but some people just can't be helped and some causes are just lost ones no matter how noble.

[polichick]

4. Republicans are regressing as fast as they can - I feel sorry for their kids! nt

[patrice]

7. And, believe me I know, there's nothing you can do about the worst amongst them

anything you do try will only make them worse :-(

[nyc 4 Biden]

16. IMO, rw'ers don't hate left policy as much as they simply hate us.

it's all personal for them. if liberals support something, they hate it. they hate us. we can't forget that when we attempt bipartisanship.

It's an us against them mentality, there always needs to be a bad guy,i.e. un-patriotic un-American liberals in our case.

they need to de-humanize and simplify their enemies. zero empathy. no room for nuance, compromise, complexities, a gray area or the truth. this is what they have been spoon fed by their echo chamber social circles, rw talk radio, fox news and the mass media in general.

they need to see the light on their own. and with no honest media outlets, it aint gonna happen.

[walldude]

20. +1 These people are willing to hurt themsleves

to prove how righteous they are. It's freaky.

[patrice]

39. I have seen some actually take a certain bitter joy in hurting themselves,

I guess because they think they are proving a point.

[ieoeja]

26. The angriest I have ever made any Rightists is when ...

... I have given rational reasons why they were correct on a particular subject.

But I don't think I angered them because someone they hate agreed with them. I believe it was my reason for agreeing with them.

Yes, they try to use logic and reason to support their positions. But even they surely realize how illogical and unreasonable their arguments typically are. They make those arguments anyway because they think they are being politically clever in doing so.

It really goes down to the core of what makes one a Conservative: they believe. Right is right. Not because of some rational argument, but simply because it "is". Period. "Because it's just right," is a common argument put forward by rank-and-file Republicans. So if you favor a position of theirs for well thought out reasons, then you are still wrong in thinking those reasons matter.

That infuriates them far more than anything else because we obviously still just don't get the point that what they believe is inherently right.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. Now I'm curious. What was the subject and the argument? -nt

[ieoeja]

43. I have forgotten.

I remember a handful of people I drank with regularly getting furious. Two of them threatened me with physical violence. "But, I just agreed with you," I replied.

They got as confused a look on their faces as I had. They couldn't figure out why my agreeing with them in that fashion made them so angry. But it made them INCREDIBLY angry.


The only thing I regularly agree with the Right on is on firearms. But I don't think it was that. There I have found that we agree on firearms for different reasons, but they do make all the same arguments I make. In reality, they mostly favor their right to keep firearms because it has always been a right of theirs. Had it not always been a right, they would probably oppose it (as they oppose every new civil right recognized since the ink dried on the Constitution).

[patrice]

42. That's the heart of it. Do you recall when you started to realize that Right and Wrong don't

come to us from "Above". I do. I remember how afraid that thought made me. I had to think it just a little at a time and even once I got used to it, it was years before I learned the joy of what it means, Freedom.

I think many people have sacrificed too much to whatever it is that "Above" refers too and those sacrifices bind them in slavery, so Freedom, or even the implication thereof, is painful to them, hence the pleasure in further sacrifices, anyone and everyone, the more the better, because those sacrifices prove that whatever is "Above" is real. To me, it is very interesting how The Bible IS this story.

[ieoeja]

44. I grew up Atheist. So for me "above" would have been my parents.

Punishing my brother when I hurt myself playing baseball is the first time I can recall realizing my parents were just plain WRONG. There may have been earlier ones.

And it can still crop up on an issue. I remember the first time I had to call Moscow. I got halfway through the number then hung up. My boss asked me why I hung up, and I told him it just shook me for a second that I was calling "the evil enemy". Rationally, I knew that feeling was a crock of shit, but the feelings were there and had to be expunged.

We ended up bringing the guy from Moscow over here to our global HQ on my recommendation. Unfortunately, a couple weeks later we hired the stupidest CIO in the world which eventually prompted the guy to beat feet back for Moscow wondering how the stupid Americans managed to win the Cold War. :)

[patrice]

45. I think the whole question is a generalization of that basic organic fact and the problem with

generalizations is that they, at least in some small part but usually in much more than "in some small part", depend upon inference and there is nothing logically necessary about inference. That doesn't mean that you can't make accurate inferences, but inferrential accuracy depends heavily on so much more valid deduction in its subsets and most people just don't do the work, because it FEELS so much BETTER to just make that leap into the arms of W-H-A-T-E-V-E-R ***really*** is "above" and then get social reinforcement for calling it the socially agreed upon label, i.e. "God".

Of course, I'm not the first to think this stuff; you have probably already picked up echoes of Freud, but I also like very much what Jean Piaget had to say about the earliest developmental cognitive behaviors: concrete, "circular", learning actions.

[liberal N proud]

8. I just saw a video that someone sent me that backs this up

I can't find it on line but I am sure it exists.

It talks about fertility rate and culture not being able to maintain its self below 1.8 kids per couple and how we are going to be take over by muslims and it was time to wake up.

Something that would fit right into the realm of those discussed in the article.

[Bonhomme Richard]

9. Their country does exist. It's Somalia. n/t

[bdamomma]

37. maybe they should have their own island and keep us out of

their shallowness.

[Gman]

11. The 30% again

further identified

[NJmaverick]

12. It's the threat that this party of radical wild eye liberty hating right wingers

poses to our nation, that is the cause for my strong support of the Dems.

[branders seine]

14. this country is in deep trouble.

these people are mentally ill.

[depakid]

28. It certainly is- since Democrats along with the corporate media repeately legitimize thier extremism

[indy legend]

32. Wait a minute........

....the media has a liberal bias doesn't it. That's what these a$$ clowns keep saying. It was on Fox News. It must be true. They are "fair and balanced".
"They report we decide".

[Binka]

30. Four Decades Of McDonald's And Shitty TV Tends To Do That

This country is very fucked.

[gratuitous]

15. And the sorriest thing about it?

They represent a small minority, but the popular media provide them a megaphone and a platform all out of proportion to their numbers. While it's easy to blame Fox - and make no mistake, they're the biggest offender - other media outlets make damn sure these views are out there, articulated, and lent credence simply by their uncritical presentation. You don't hear commentators reviewing these findings and saying, "Of course, it is rank nonsense to say that President Obama wasn't born in the United States" or "So-and-so subscribes to the ridiculous notion that President Obama is a racist who hates white people."

[nyc 4 Biden]

17. unfortunately, i dont think they are that small of a minority.

if you look at americans who actually have an opinion on political matters, I would say these rw nutties are a decent sized chunk.

[moondust]

18. Fox, Limbaugh, etc. are driving this.

As long as they are around to stir the coals of hate and division on a daily basis the situation is not likely to improve.

[onestepforward]

22. So true.

Sadly, the poll clearly reflects their talking points.

[Cali_Democrat]

19. Yeesh!!!

:scared:

[yowzayowzayowza]

21. Same as it ever was. Same....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Wing_Authoritarianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_dominance_orientation

[MilesColtrane]

23. Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President of the United States than Barack Obama?

All Republicans: 53% Yes

"........!"

[frylock]

24. who is the greater fool?

the idiots who responded to this poll, or the idiots that believe we need to work in a bipartisan fashion to appease these dumbshits?!

[WhiteTara]

25. well that was pretty scary and enlightening.

yikes! Who are these people? Abortion is murder...state sanctioned murder is not. I sure hope they don't have kids. We don't need anymore of those gene pools.

[troubledamerican]

27. (1) Purity test for GOP followed by (2) Purity test for true Americans

Democrats can't hold the WH or Congress forever. Hope y'all are ready.

[Kablooie]

31. If these buffoons are inspired to get out and vote, they might be running our country soon.

I'm beginning to think more like Plato.

"Democracy passes into despotism."

[indy legend]

34. These people back in charge.

That is the thought that keeps me awake at night. I was thinking about moving to Portland or Seattle next year after retiring because they are much more progressive cities than were I am now but if these people get a hold of power for four or eight more years to finish the job I might have to look at s Vancouver as a more viable option. OMG did I say Option. I know that's one of the words that scares the hell out of the right. Oh well. Most of them can't read anyway.

[Ganja Ninja]

35. As long as Democrats keep talking about bipartisanship with these morons

they might as well be running the country. We can't compromise with crazy.

[and-justice-for-all]

36. I enjoy seeing the bigoted, ignorant mentality on display...

A country ran under those ideals would look like, well it would look like Iran, but with xitanity.

[DainBramaged]

38. Meh............

[Douglas Carpenter]

40. kick and recommend

[scheming daemons]

41. They're not nuttier than I thought.... that's how nutty I knew they were

no surprises there ... to me.