According to the survey, 36 percent of respondents do not believe the president was born in this country, and 21 percent think the liberal advocacy group ACORN stole the election for Obama.It continues:
Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of the Republicans polled, 23 percent, want their state to secede from the union.
Fifty-one percent of those polled believe sex education should not be taught in schools; 77 percent want creationism taught in schools; 31 percent want contraception outlawed; and 34 percent believe birth control is “abortion.”Some comments about these people. These are the same sorts of things that Charles Johnson was saying just before he cut his ties with the right. The poll is of "self-identified" Republicans. Most of the people that I go to church with do not identify themselves as Republicans, they identify themselves as Christians who just happen to vote Republican most of the time. I wonder what a similar poll of self-identified Democrats would reveal? What percentage would support Code Pink? How many think that Abortion should be on-demand and paid for by the state? How many are self-described socialists?
The point is that most people exist somewhere in the middle. Quite a few people on the right were upset when Don McLeroy and his supporters forced creationism on the School Board of Texas. Further, I know no one who identifies with the Republican party that wants to secede from the union or that believes that birth control is "abortion."
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Since the poll was done by DKos, they're going to push questions that give the worst possible view of Republicans. But then again Politico isn't exactly left wing, so it is an odd partnership. I'm not anything close to an orthodox conservative, but where I used to live, West Michigan, is filled with folks who do in fact espouse most of what that poll describes except the secession bit. Now that I live in the liberal heartland of Boston, I'm sure some are Code Pink types. But honestly none of my more liberal friends hadn't even heard of them till Fox and talk radio started spouting off about them. So I would hazard a guess that most democrats wouldn't even know who they are, let alone see them as mainstream. I think the middle of the democratic party is center left whereas the middle of the republican party has moved towards a harder right position since the last election. As a LGF lizard myself, I can understand what Charles is so concerned about. It is scary how much crazy has broken out on the right.
ReplyDeleteThere are several things that the Republican party has absolutely got to divest itself of in terms of its support. One is the birthers. It didn't fly when people said McCain was born in the Canal Zone and, therefore, couldn't run for president. It doesn't fly now with Obama. It just makes them look silly. The other is anti-scientism. This usually takes the form of anti-evolutionism but the whole package creates problems for YEC supporters. The Republican party has got to take an official stance on these issues or they will look foolish in the next election cycle.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but "Teach the controversy," "promote academic freedom," and "provide the full range of scientific views" are just code phrases for "We don't like evolution." Unfortunately, it passes muster with the rank and file Republicans because of the abysmal lack of science education in this country.
I am on the fence about global warming skepticism, simply because the people that dissent from the consensus have advanced degrees in meteorology and climatology. That, at least causes me to sit back and think for a minute. Such is not the case with the YEC model.