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Report: Rank and file republicans highly misinformed about the world
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View this Thread in Original format
| AnotherWay83 |
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/P...10_21_04.html#1
Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program,
Supported al Qaeda
Agree with Kerry Supporters Bush Administration Still Saying This is the Case
Agree US Should Not Have Gone to War if No WMD or Support for al Qaeda
Bush Supporters Misperceive World Public as Not Opposed to Iraq War,
Favoring Bush Reelection
Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on all these points.
Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Here again, large majorities of Kerry supporters have exactly opposite perceptions.
These are some of the findings of a new study of the differing perceptions of Bush and Kerry supporters, conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks, based on polls conducted in September and October.
Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry supporters agree." Eighty-two percent of Bush supporters perceive the Bush administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or that Iraq had a major WMD program (19%). Likewise, 75% say that the Bush administration is saying Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. Equally large majorities of Kerry supporters hear the Bush administration expressing these views--73% say the Bush administration is saying Iraq had WMD (11% a major program) and 74% that Iraq was substantially supporting al Qaeda.
Steven Kull adds, "Another reason that Bush supporters may hold to these beliefs is that they have not accepted the idea that it does not matter whether Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda. Here too they are in agreement with Kerry supporters." Asked whether the US should have gone to war with Iraq if US intelligence had concluded that Iraq was not making WMD or providing support to al Qaeda, 58% of Bush supporters said the US should not have, and 61% assume that in this case the President would not have. Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about prewar Iraq."
<< RESUME READING >>
This tendency of Bush supporters to ignore dissonant information extends to other realms as well. Despite an abundance of evidence--including polls conducted by Gallup International in 38 countries, and more recently by a consortium of leading newspapers in 10 major countries--only 31% of Bush supporters recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq. Forty-two percent assume that views are evenly divided, and 26% assume that the majority approves. Among Kerry supporters, 74% assume that the majority of the world is opposed.
Similarly, 57% of Bush supporters assume that the majority of people in the world would favor Bush's reelection; 33% assumed that views are evenly divided and only 9% assumed that Kerry would be preferred. A recent poll by GlobeScan and PIPA of 35 of the major countries around the world found that in 30, a majority or plurality favored Kerry, while in just 3 Bush was favored. On average, Kerry was preferred more than two to one.
Bush supporters also have numerous misperceptions about Bush's international policy positions. Majorities incorrectly assume that Bush supports multilateral approaches to various international issues--the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines (72%)--and for addressing the problem of global warming: 51% incorrectly assume he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty. After he denounced the International Criminal Court in the debates, the perception that he favored it dropped from 66%, but still 53% continue to believe that he favors it. An overwhelming 74% incorrectly assumes that he favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. In all these cases, majorities of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute to Bush. Kerry supporters are much more accurate in their perceptions of his positions on these issues.
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information," according to Steven Kull, "very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."
The polls were conducted October 12-18 and September 3-7 and 8-12 with samples of 968, 798 and 959 respondents, respectively. Margins of error were 3.2 to 4% in the first and third surveys and 3.5% on September 3-7. The poll was fielded by Knowledge Networks using its nationwide panel, which is randomly selected from the entire adult population and subsequently provided internet access. For more information about this methodology, go to www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp. |
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| Spacey Orange |
And 51% of the americans believe in ghosts.:rolleyes:
Harris Poll |
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| trancaholic |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spacey Orange
And 51% of the americans believe in ghosts.:rolleyes:
Harris Poll |
Why should that be of any concern? |
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| AnotherWay83 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spacey Orange
And 51% of the americans believe in ghosts.:rolleyes:
Harris Poll |
that has got to be the most ridiculous and irrelevant comparison i have ever come across...:rolleyes: |
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| DaveSZ |
| quote: | Originally posted by AnotherWay83
that has got to be the most ridiculous and irrelevant comparison i have ever come across...:rolleyes: |
I don't believe it is.
He/she was trying to make the point that if you are willing to believe in something that you cannot sense with any of your senses - something that cannot be at all proven - then you are apt to believe just about anything. |
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| Spacey Orange |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveSZ
I don't believe it is.
He/she was trying to make the point that if you are willing to believe in something that you cannot sense with any of your senses - something that cannot be at all proven - then you are apt to believe just about anything. |
And we have a winner.:D
I thought my comment was so self-evident that it needed no explanation. I'll connect the dots next time.
Credit the save to DaveSZ. Cheers.;) |
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| AnotherWay83 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveSZ
I don't believe it is.
He/she was trying to make the point that if you are willing to believe in something that you cannot sense with any of your senses - something that cannot be at all proven - then you are apt to believe just about anything. |
...which explains why so many die-hard republicans believe just abt anything the president tells them. case in point: WMDs in iraq.
tell me, can you "sense" with any of your senses any of the stuff that's being reported in all the political polls we hear about every day? don't think so...yet we cannot simply dismiss them entirely because even though they might not be completely accurate they still have elements of truth in them, which is what makes them at least somewhat valuable.
moreover, the intention of the report was not to "prove" that republicans are informed/misinformed. i think they were simply trying to gauge the level of understanding the average republican has of world affairs, which is certainly not the same thing as proving they are misinformed. if you read the original report, you would see that participants were simply asked to answer a certain set of questions, and the results of the report strongly indicate that a good portion of them don't know what the heck is going on. :p
and btw, judging from my experiences with the republicans i've encountered, i have no problem believing this report whatsoever. |
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| josh4 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveSZ
I don't believe it is.
He/she was trying to make the point that if you are willing to believe in something that you cannot sense with any of your senses - something that cannot be at all proven - then you are apt to believe just about anything. |
Like God? |
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| daffodil |
I was home this weekend, visiting my family. They're die hard Bush supporters and insisted I had been brainwashed because I tried explaining to them that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, and that it had no significant program to develop them. My brother and father insisted that before the invasion various countries agreed with us that Iraq had WMDs, something I haven't investigated yet. They were also adamant that Iraq was involved in the 9.11 attacks because Iraq allowed terrorists to train there. Even if this is true, apparently there is absolutely no difference between one terrorist group and another.
And I'm the one that's brainwashed :rolleyes: |
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| Spacey Orange |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
Like God? |
Yes, but that's another topic.;) |
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| josh4 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spacey Orange
Yes, but that's another topic.;) |
No... I think it is pretty damn relevant to your argument. |
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| Spacey Orange |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
No... I think it is pretty damn relevant to your argument. |
Then you should probably discuss it with someone who's interested in discussing that topic with you.:rolleyes:
Seriously, i am not the person to discuss god or any other deity.
I just made the point that many americans believe things that i find highly dubious such as ghosts. You can throw in there angels, if you like. I would add god in there too, but i hardly need to do that to make my point. I didn't bring it up, after all.
If americans believe in things despite evidence to the contrary or lack of evidence supporting their beliefs (like ghosts, angels, and god), then I'm not suprised that some americans still believe that there are WMDS in iraq or other major points in the artile. My point is that simple. |
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