47% Of Republicans Are Birthers
At least that’s what the new CBS News/New York Times Poll says:
A plurality of Republican voters, 47 percent, said they believed Mr. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was born in another country; 22 percent said they did not know where he was born, and 32 percent said they believed he was born in the United States.
Perhaps Donald Trump knows what he’s doing after all. Of course, the fact that he’s appealing to a base that is, at its core, basically nuts is a huge problem for the GOP one would think.
Update: Steve Benen nails it:
When 47% of Republicans, literally years after the birther garbage was debunked, believe the president was born in another country, it reinforces the notion that there’s a deeply ugly strain of madness that runs through Republican politics.
It’s an ugly strain that people like Rush Limbaugh have been cultivating for years, and now it’s come of age.
One would think!
This makes me think of the old joke about a person who said they couldn’t go to New Mexico because they didn’t have a passport. I wonder what percentage of Republicans think New Mexico (and Hawaii) is another country? I’ll bet it’s close to the same…
JUST SHOW US THE LONG FORM AND YOUR SIGNED BOTTLE OF AMNIOTIC FLUID! WHAT IS HE HIDING?!?!?!
This has been brought up before, but at this point I think there are relatively few true Birthers. A poll like this just shows that 47% of Republicans refuse to concede anything pro-Obama to a pollster.
This has been brought up before, but at this point I think there are relatively few true Birthers. A poll like this just shows that 47% of Republicans refuse to concede anything pro-Obama to a pollster.
There’s probably some of that, but go to a rally or other Republican/Tea Party event. You’ll see how much traction the birther madness has gotten on the right.
That strikes me as a fine bit of rationalization, but since this basic finding keeps emerging over and over, it is an assertion that has no foundation.
Further, is there any objective reason to assume that pollster in question is “pro-Obama” or that that is the perception of 47% of Republicans or, even better, that there is a concerted effort by respondents to lie to pollsters?
Comrade Obama says there are 57 states. Since Comrade Obama never makes mistakes, we must have 57 states.
It’s CBS/ News their sampling technique, has been proven wrong , many many times, I find many aspects of the President’s policies more interesting than this stale cul de sac, but one sees how you are not interested in many of those
When it comes to those polls showing a large percentage of Americans thinking that Obama is a Muslim, I’ve long thought that many of the respondents know it isn’t literally true. From talking to right-wingers, I’ve gotten the sense that many of them use “Muslim” as a dirty word where they want to express that someone is “soft on Islam” or “connected with Muslims” or something, even if they know perfectly well Obama is not literally an adherent of Islam. (It’s similar to how anti-Semites have often used the word “Jew.”) But the birther thing is harder to fit into this theory, because it’s a much more concrete question, with little ambiguity: was Obama born in the United States or wasn’t he? I think it’s possible this poll might exaggerate the number of true birthers, but I doubt it’s by a huge amount.
While Rush certainly deserves blame for enabling he’s not at all the root cause. The root is a decided determination to deny evidence and consensual reality. Where does that come from? From a toxic combination of fundamentalism and corporatism.
On the one hand you’ve got various industries that have sunk billions into creating false scientific results (“Smoking is harmless!”, “The ozone is fine!”, “Global warming isn’t happening!”, “Asbestos is harmless!”, “DDT is good for you!”, and on and on and on). Those people want very much to attack teh credibility of legitimate science because too often legitimate science threatens the bottom line.
On the other hand you have the fundamentalists who insist the bible is literally true in every detail and not mostly a work of parables. These people want to attack the credibility of legitimate science since it often gets in th way of their literal interpretations (“The earth is 5, er, 10 thousand years old!”, “Jesus rode dinosaurs!”, “all life came into existence in it’s current form!”, and on and on).
Normally fundamentalism and corporatism aren’t really natural bedfellows. Jesus said a few pretty unkind things about the rich and religious views are generally incompatible with a lot of marketing. That’s why it’s so extraordinary to see the fusion of theocracy and fascism in the modern republican party. Frankly evil concepts like the prosperity gospel help bridge the divide between these frankly evil groups allowing them to get together and cause harm on a really massive scale.
I think the problem with this theory is that there appear to be a number of non-Republican birthers. The poll doesn’t give breakdowns for non-Republicans:
Those believing Obama was not born in the U.S.:
25% Overall
45% Republican
Since only about 22% of the public identifies as Republican according to Pollster.com, that suggests that 25% may consist of as many non-Republicans as Republicans. (0.22 x 0.45 = 9.9%)
we Americans love our conspiracies. pick you fav!
9/11
UFO/Roswell
Kennedy Asassination
WWII/Pearl Harbor
Our Great Leader’s origins and personal history
I’m sure there’s more…
you = your – PIMF!
When Obama gives his second inaugural address, he should thank the birthers.
I wonder where Jerome Corsi fits in this poll?
“Update: Steve Benen nails it:”
Dude, You have really gone off the far, far left haven’t you. Referencing 2 extreme left organs (NY Times & Steve Benen). At least you don’t pretend you are a Moderate/Repub anymore. That is good. You appeared to be twisting yourself into knots earlier trying to come across as a Repub, when most of your postings would be fit at home at DailyKOS and most of the commenters on your threads are left wing hatemongers. Btw, I think this birther issue is ridiculous and just media fodder.
Bush did it.
@SJ:
(I know this is pointless, but here I go anyway): the notion that the NYT and Steve Benen are “far, far left” is absurd. If you really think that, then you have no idea was the word “left” means.
Go read some Marx or Hardt and Negri and then we can talk about “far, far left.”
Or Obama and his czars and mentors….
Or Tlaloc….
There goes Professor Taylor once again proselytizing for Marx and other communists . . . 😉
I really don’t think that yet another poll showing yet again that a substantial number of people who consider themselves Republicans and perhaps wear a pointed hat on the weekend is really news.
Let’s face it. The GOP has morphed into the Goofy Old Party.
Steven: I believe the phrase was “extreme left”, which is probably equivalent to “left, left, left, whoa this is left”. As in there is nothing more left. So it’s even stupider than you suggested! I really wonder why people say such ridiculous things. Habit? Thinking they’re doing their part to move the Overton window? Ignorance? A dumb joke? Trolling? It’s obviously false.
@PD: You know me: trying my best on a daily basis to get the workers to unite.
@reid: You are correct: he uses both phrase.
It just drives me nuts. Make an argument. Criticize. But if one is going to use terms like “left” (let alone “far, far left” or “extreme left”) at least understand what one is saying.
Steven: I think for the consummate wingnut, it’s habit. Demonizing your opponents is a critical component to keeping the hatred going. Let reality seep in, and rational thought may follow, and then the whole house of cards could come tumbling down. I’m not sure if we have enough asylums for that to happen on a large scale.
True, I’m well to the left of the mainstream. I admit that freely. Of course I’m also well to the left of the posters here, the NYT (or any mainstream media) and Washington monthly so that really only undercuts your supposed point.
Sorry.
What the heck is “consensual reality”?
You really haven’t read much of history or world politics have you? Calling the Times far, far left is like calling Fox News far, far right … take a look around the world for the range of political thought and come back to us.