[Vision2020] What Republicans Believe

[Ron Force]

I wasn't going to forward this, but the orginating agency (not the
commentary) is objective and non-partisan http://www.pipa.org/

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Ron Force          Moscow ID USA
rforce at moscow.com
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http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/

The blind leading the blind

Even if they don't like to say it out loud, lots of Democrats think that
George Bush's supporters are a horde of ignoramuses. Now comes evidence that
they're right! A remarkable new report titled "The Separate Realities of
Bush and Kerry Supporters" from PIPA, the Program on International Policy
Attitudes at the University of Maryland, suggests that rank and file
Republicans are more benighted than even the most supercilious coastal
elitist would imagine.

Analyzing data from a series of nationwide polls, the report finds that a
majority of Bush supporters believe things about the world that are
objectively untrue, while the majority of Kerry supporters dwell in the
reality-based community. For example, Bush backers largely think that the
president and his policies are popular internationally. Seventy-five percent
believe that Iraq was providing "substantial" aid to al-Qaida, and 63
percent say clear evidence of this has been found. That, of course, would be
news even to Donald Rumsfeld, who earlier this month told the Council On
Foreign Relations, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard
evidence that links the two."

Though its language is dispassionate, the report lays responsibility for
this epidemic of ignorance at the White House's door. "So why are Bush
supporters clinging so tightly to these beliefs in the face of repeated
disconfirmations?" it asks. "Apparently one key reason is that they continue
to hear the Bush administration confirming these beliefs."

Indeed, it says, "an overwhelming 82% [of Bush supporters] perceive the Bush
administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or a major WMD program
(19%). Only 16% of Bush supporters perceive the administration as saying
that Iraq had some limited activities, but not an active program (15%) or
had nothing (1%). The pattern on al Qaeda is similar. Seventy-five percent
of Bush supporters think the Bush administration is currently saying Iraq
was providing substantial support to al Qaeda (56%) or even that it was
directly involved in 9/11 (19%). Further, 55% of Bush supporters say it is
their impression the Bush administration is currently saying the US has
found clear evidence Saddam Hussein was working closely with al Qaeda (not
saying clear evidence found: 37%)."

These people aren't going to be swayed by the argument that Bush has
alienated American's allies and left the country isolated in the world,
because they don't believe this to be the case. "Despite a steady flow of
official statements, public demonstrations, and public opinion polls showing
that the US war against Iraq is quite unpopular, only 31% of Bush supporters
recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US having gone
to war with Iraq," the study says. Bush supporters also think that world
public opinion favors Bush's reelection. In a poll taken from September 3-7,
the study says, "57% of Bush supporters assumed that the majority of people
in the world would prefer to see Bush reelected, 33% assumed that views are
evenly divided and only 9% assumed that Kerry would be preferred."

In fact, a PIPA study released in early September found that a majority or
plurality of people from 32 countries preferred Kerry to Bush. PIPA surveyed
34,330 people, ages 15 and above, from regions all over the world. A Pew
poll released this spring similarly found that "large majorities in every
country, except for the U.S., hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush."

Bush supporters are also mistaken about the president's own positions (a
pattern of misapprehension that an earlier PIPA report also documented).
"Majorities incorrectly assumed that Bush supports multilateral approaches
to various international issues -- the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%),
the treaty banning land mines (72%); 51% incorrectly assumed he favors US
participation in the Kyoto treaty -- the principal international accord on
global warming... Only 13% of supporters are aware that he opposes labor and
environmental standards in trade agreements -- 74% incorrectly believe that
he favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on
trade. In all these cases, there is a recurring theme: majorities of Bush
supporters favor these positions, and they infer that Bush favors them as
well."

According to the report, this reality gap is something new in American life.
"So why do Bush supporters show such a resistance to accepting dissonant
information?" it asks. "While it is normal for people to show some
resistance, the magnitude of the denial goes beyond the ordinary. Bush
supporters have succeeded in suppressing awareness of the findings of a
whole series of high-profile reports about prewar Iraq that have been
blazoned across the headlines of newspapers and prompted extensive,
high-profile and agonizing reflection. The fact that a large portion of
Americans say they are unaware that the original reasons that the US took
military action -- and for which Americans continue to die on a daily
basis -- are not turning out to be valid, are probably not due to a simple
failure to pay attention to the news."

The analysis says that the roots of this denial could lie in the trauma of
9/11 and people's desire to hold on to their image of Bush as a "capable
protector." It offers no guidance, though, on how ordinary Republicans might
be coaxed back to reality.

And while "The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters" may be
perversely satisfying to Democrats in its confirmation of blue-state
prejudices, it carries a pretty disturbing question for all rational
Americans: How can arguments based on fact prevail in a nation where so many
people know so little?

-- Michelle Goldberg