Mississippi Republican Voters: Sublime Ignorance

Although why the writer should single out Mississippi I don't know, I should imagine there ain't a great deal of difference between any of 'em, south or west of New York State. As the video below will attest.

Bring Out the Dinosaurs: 66 Percent of Likely Mississippi GOP Primary Voters Are Creationists
Mark Karlin
03/13/2012

A columnist for "The Atlantic" chastised a Democratic-affiliated polling firm for asking likely Southern GOP primary voters if they thought Obama was a Muslim. Isn't this just reinforcing the idea that the president is Islamic, the writer asks?

There's a point to be made that in this age of demagogic factoids, repeating them in some ways gives them more credence.

On the other hand, isn't it of significance to discover that "new data from Public Policy Polling ...shows that 52 percent of Mississippi Republican believe President Obama is a Muslim (a comparatively slight 45 percent of Alabama GOP voters agreed with them)"? In addition the poll shows some further disarming responses: 66 percent of likely Mississippi Republican voters don't believe in evolution; 60 percent of Alabama GOP followers share that opinion. Oh, and 67 percent of likely Alabama Grand Old Party voters believe that the state's xenophobic and harsh anti-Mexican "immigration law" is a "good thing."

When you add these and other poll responses together, you realize that a large portion of the Southern Republican voting base that is living in the dark ages. The much-commented upon belief that Obama is a Muslim is just the most sensational of poll revelations, because it is so contrary to a verifiable fact.

What you have here is a profile of a segment of the US population that is somewhat akin to a religious cult with a deep fear of anyone who doesn't look and talk like they do. Of course, the "Obama is a Muslim" meme (repeated in innuendo so often on FOX and by right wing talk show hosts such as Limbaugh) plays to the racial animosity of the heritage of the Confederacy. Maybe many likely GOP primary voters don't even know that believing such a false "factoid" is just a cerebrally coated way of reflecting, "I don't want a black man as president; 'real' Americans are white."

Polls such as this pre-primary one reinforce the idea that the South may have lost the Civil War, but the inherited values and beliefs of the Confederacy now dominate the Republican Party. As a result, this "backwards in time" outlook currently has a stranglehold on the United States through Republican control of the House of Representatives. Furthermore, the US Senate Republican caucus frequently appeals to this base and stifles progress through the threat of filibusters. Not to mention that the GOP field of presidential candidates heavily leans in the direction of this minority of voters living in a bubble.

In that regard, knowing that the majority of likely Mississippi GOP voters believe that President Obama is a Muslim and that 66 percent of them are creationists is information worth knowing. Buzzflash

This little pearl from Lynchburg Tennessee. Originally posted under the header, Now I Know How Idiots Get Elected President.

It's scary to say the least, especially when you see the young uns caught up in all this nonsense. If we can't look to to youth to cast off this yoke of ignorance, who can we look to?