[Vision2020] What Republicans Believe

[Dick Schmidt]

Pat,

Does this mean that you are starting to lean a little to the left! Are you 
looking on Mr. Kerry with favoritism?

Dick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] What Republicans Believe


> "How can arguments based on fact prevail in a nation where so many people
> know so little?"
>
> I couldn't agree more. I have come to the conclusion that people shouldn't
> be allowed to vote until they are 30 and have finished serious classes 
> about
> the two parties and the candidates. AND about our history and what the
> different parts of our government actually do. I really am coming to 
> believe
> that some people just shouldn't have the vote. All these kids that Ophra 
> and
> others are getting registered only know what people are telling them. They
> have not yet paid enough taxes, tried to start a business or gone far 
> enough
> in life to learn who they really are and what they really think. I know 
> that
> because I was one of them. When I talk to people about our history and 
> form
> of government I am well aware that too many people weren't listening in
> History classes.
> PK
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ron Force" <rforce at moscow.com>
> To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 2:32 PM
> Subject: [Vision2020] What Republicans Believe
>
>
>> I wasn't going to forward this, but the orginating agency (not the
>> commentary) is objective and non-partisan http://www.pipa.org/
>>
>> **********************************************
>> Ron Force          Moscow ID USA
>> rforce at moscow.com
>> **********************************************
>>
>> 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
>>
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