Daily Kos polling continues to humiliate the Republican Base and the southern region of our country. This week, the polling reveals that 58% of Republicans either don’t believe the president was born in the United States or are unsure. This compares to 7% of Democrats and 17% of Independents. Also revealed, Republicans do not know or believe in basic geology. Asked if they believe that America and Africa were once part of the same continent (they were) 76% of Republicans said ‘no’ or ‘not sure.’
The relationship between ignorance, Republicanism, and the South comes through in shining clarity in this polling. Whereas, all other regions of the country have at least a plurality who understand plate tectonics, only 24% of Republicans and 32% of Southerners do. While 93% of Democrats and 83% of Independents affirm that Obama was born in this country, only 42% of Republicans agree. But look at these numbers (combined percentage who do not believe or are not sure that Obama was born here, by region): Northeast 7%, Midwest 10%, West 17%, South 53%.
How does that happen? It’s actually a minority position in the South to affirm that the president was born in the United States. It’s even more of a minority position in the Republican Party. Aside from the startling demonstration of regional wingnuttery, I have to note that it would never occur to anyone on their own that the elected president of the United States might be ineligible for the job. These numbers represent the degree of penetration of the conspiracy theory as well as, probably, a regional difference in relative gullibility. It’s natural that an area of the country that is less supportive of the president would be more inclined to believe bad things about him, and that definitely accounts for some of the discrepancy. But it can’t account for the yawning gap between the South and rest of the country. The question about continental drift demonstrates that clearly.
You can’t hardly believe in continental drift if you think the earth is 6000 years old. I think that answers most of your question.
This is awesome.
Yeah – I’m developing some respect for Weiner.
That’s probably it in a nutshell — too many (not all, but still too many) evangelicals are told over and over again that what is in the Bible is Absolutely Literally True and Infallible and Must NOT Be Questioned — and thus it follows anything that contradicts (or appears to contradict, anyway) that Absolute Truth cannot possibly also be true.
They’re told to be wary and suspicious of anything that might challenge their faith, to the point that ignorance is equated with godliness, and those who seek out other sources of knowledge and information have their faith and even the salvation of their souls called into doubt.
And when you desperately want to believe in something, and have a sense of security about how the world works, when your world is defined by a religious point of view, and reinforced by every social connection you have, it’s really hard to challenge that world view or have the curiosity and independence to attempt to learn anything different.
I think you have summarized well the state of the Republican base. And there can really be no other conclusion than this:
They are nearing a cult-like pattern of behavior.
And their narratives would likely get little to no traction if not for the fact that the media, in their quest to be “balanced”, feel driven to present their viewpoints as somehow a rational and thought out belief system that is based on facts and not delusions.
Until the media finally deal with the fact that they are propping up this insane group and giving them legitimacy by their coverage, then sadly we are going to have to continue to actually answer and debate their fallacious beliefs.
I think you state that very well.
My only concern is that we start equating “Birthers” with “Republicans.” They’re not ALL dumb, religious, etc.
There are those who believe the ideology espoused by their party who are not religious. I’m sure their numbers are few, but those are the ones I’ve met.
How can that happen? Need I remind you that we’ve spent the week in a place where we’re limited to CNN and Fox news (no MSNBC)?
It’s like the Flat Earth conspiracy — you know, if enough right-wing media personalities and Republican Members of Congress expressed doubt about whether the earth was a sphere, and textbook printers started offering a flat-earth map as a “plausible theory”, and so on… the poll numbers on that question would probably start to come out about the same eventually…
I think of all the Republican congress members Mike Stark ambushed this week with his video camera, only ONE stated a firm belief that yes, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and was a natural born citizen of the US. Only ONE.
It’s utterly batshit insane, but there you have it.
I feel that all of the above apply to varying degrees in all said individuals, but everyone forgot the the great big helping of racism. I believe that racism above all else motivates these people.
good point – and one which nonracists all too easily miss.
Not really. Quite a few people, including me, feel that Bush was ineligible because he lost the election in 2000.
How does it happen, you ask.
It happens through the peer pressure of the FoxNews and Lou Dobbs folks on their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. Intimidation by being loudmouths.
Now, I’m not sure that the Lou Dobbs, FoxNews demographic is so slanted to the South. And I am not sure that bigotry in the South is seven or eight times what it is elsewhere.
So my question is, “Why are so many non-Southern bigots not birthers as well?” It is tapping into something different than bigotry.
Indeed. The connection between racism and disbelieving continental drift is quite lost on me.
Frankly, I suspect the unifying phenomenon here is the working class, specifically, un- and semi-skilled farm and factory workers. The farmers were left behind a long, long time ago — it’s been about a century since the United States became a majority-urban country. The factory workers have been left behind by a similar economic shift well within living memory. The modern economy is built around knowledge workers, at least as far as any kind of prosperity goes.
Up until the 70’s, it was possible to be barely educated and make a decent, if modest, living. But when the tides of globalization began sending manufacturing jobs overseas, that ended. The end result is a vast class of people who have very limited prospects in a world they are educationally incapable of understanding. Remember Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Well, the average industrial laborer — or former industrial laborer — lives in such a world. To such people, there is no way to distinguish between the technical mumbo jumbo of the technological classes and the fraudulent mumbo jumbo of religion and reactionary politics, save that the witch doctors and demagogues are trying to curry their favor, while the technologists have no particular use for them.
Red America is predominately the land of un- and semi-skilled labor, for whom there is no place in the modern world. If there is anything special about the South, it is that a greater proportion of its population falls into that class than elsewhere, though there’s certainly big chunks of the same in the midwest and the back country of New York and Pennsylvania, and the decaying industrial centers of the rust belt. Nor is there anything new about this — the dispossessed agricultural workers at the beginning of the industrial age were a fertile ground for fascism, communism, and other reactionary creeds.
The answer, of course, is compassion and, above all, education. Unfortunately, it’s apparently too much fun for the beneficiaries of social and technological change to mock its victims for them to put much thought into lending a hand to people who are lashing out because they are frightened, confused, and suffering.
Instead, we get these “fuck the South” threads, wherein someone always suggests, or outright states, that the United States would be better off without the South.
Hopefully, they will remember their own better natures before they get their wish and discover that a nuclear-armed authoritarian neo-Confederacy full of angry religious fanatics sitting on their border is not really what they wanted.
This Southerner doesn’t have much use for religion, but there are some gems of wisdom mixed in with the bronze age superstition. Here’s one for our Yankee brethren:
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
I really appreciate your analysis. Your diary White Guys and Race was spot on.
This paragraph describes my PA community:
So when the average middle to lower class white guy hears minority members complaining about white privilege, it strikes him as bullshit because he doesn’t feel privileged in any way despite his whiteness. He’s working hard and struggling to keep his head above water, and as far as he can tell, no one is cutting him any deals because he’s pink.
TerranceDC in Sotomayor & The Vulcan Standard, Pt. 2 adds to the analysis of what has happened to the variety of white subcultures:
Contributing, even driving, the unhappiness and fear is the media. Advertising is based on creating unhappiness and fear.
Even as the manufacturing began to disappear from this area, the community has resisted supporting the school system in the form of increased taxes. There is fear of the educational system teaching “values.” As a consequence, there are a growing number of private religious schools. This splinters the community even further.
I do hope you will continue to post. You describe many areas well north of the Mason-Dixon line. As to those who believe the U.S. would be better off without the South, imo, they don’t realize a “new” south would include huge swatches of Ohio, PA, NY, DE, NJ, and points further north and west.
“Why are so many non-Southern bigots not birthers as well?
ya think it might have something to do with literacy? or perhaps l should ask why is it that the south is overwhelmingly at the bottom of the literacy list according to the u.s census bureau?
or perhaps, it’s better categorized as an aspect of tribalism?
from arthur silbers’ ongoing series on tribalism, these observations seem apropos to your query:
[recommended reading, btw]
or maybe they really haven’t gotten over the civil war and the yankee carpetbaggers, and the falsely defiant attitude that’s evidenced in the embrace of the stars and bars as a symbol of righteousness and justice? …maybe they’re predisposed to be antagonistic towards a mulato…black man…who, in their eyes is not fit to be president.
frankly, these figures don’t surprise me in the least. my experiences with people l’ve met and worked with on projects in the south, leads me to believe it’s deeply ingrained in the culture, and reinforced in their religious practices and beliefs, and their formal…and especially, informal…education.
just asking…you’re the one who lives down there.
It’s kind of like living Asimov’s ‘Nightfall’ and C.M.Kornbluth’s ‘The Marching Morons’ at the same time.