Republican insanity/fun with statistics

A recent Harris Poll of Republican voters revealed some interesting information:

Majorities of Republicans believe that President Obama:

• Is a socialist (67%)
• Wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns (61%)
• Is a Muslim (57%)
• Wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (51%); and
• Has done many things that are unconstitutional (55%).

Also large numbers of Republicans also believe that President Obama:

• Resents America’s heritage (47%)
• Does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (40%)
• Was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (45%)
• Is the “domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of” (45%)
• Is a racist (42%)
• Want to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (41%)
• Is doing many of the things that Hitler did (38%).

Even more remarkable perhaps, fully 24% of Republicans believe that “he may be the Anti-Christ” and 22% believe “he wants the terrorists to win.”

Some of these are actually not that stupid, though I doubt most of those who think Obama has done a lot of things that violate the Constitution are talking about his real violations, which concern civil liberties and the war on terror.  And there’s really no doubt that he’s pretty much bought and paid for by Wall Street banks.  Some of the others are standard Republican boilerplate and thus not really surprising or a big deal.  Republicans are always concerned about Dems being socialist and wanting to take their guns.

What I find particularly interesting is that 57% of Republicans think he’s Muslim and 40% think he’s a lackey for Wall Street.  Do we have a new conspiracy theory brewing here?  Could a significant number of Republicans believe that Obama is a Muslim lackey for Jewish bankers?  Maybe they see Obama as a Manchurian Candidate from the Legion of Doom.

What’s particularly strange is that 24% think Obama is the anti-Christ, while only 22% think he wants the terrorists to win.  Apparently 2% of Republicans think the anti-Christ is on our side, which of course would mean that God isn’t.  I bet those 2 percenters are a real hit at party meetings.

Obviously this isn’t how statistics work; lies, damned lies and all that.  It’d be stupid to take these results too seriously.  Clearly there can be some Republicans that think Obama isn’t the anti-christ but wants the terrorists to win, and the ones who think Obama is a Muslim probably aren’t the same who think he’s a lackey for Wall Street.

Still, there is something we can take away from this poll.  That such a high percentage of Republicans believe literally insane things indicates that moderate Republicans have abandoned the party and no longer identify as Republicans.  This is a terrible sign for the Republican party, and bad news for the rest of us as well.  This country needs a sensible conservative party.  Instead we’ve got a group of insane morons who are trending more and more towards domestic terrorism.

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