On numerous matters of fact and policy, conservatives live in an alternate reality. The partisan divide in American politics is as wide as ever.
A CNN/ORC poll taken in 2015 found that 43 percent of Republicans believed that Obama is a Muslim.
According to the Pew Research Center, "Just over a quarter of the public -- 28% -- says climate scientists have a solid understanding of the causes of climate change. And even fewer, 19%, of adults say the same about climate scientists' understanding of the best ways to address climate change." "Consistent with past Pew Research Center surveys, most liberal Democrats espouse human-caused climate change, while most conservative Republicans reject it." "Thirty percent of Fox News viewers say that Obama is 'probably' or 'definitely' not a citizen, and another nine percent say that they do not know. In comparison, only 13 percent of CNN viewers, and seven percent of MSNBC viewers say the same."
A 2016 survey taken by Yale and George Mason University found that only 47% of Republicans believe in climate change.
A 2015 PublicMind poll by Farleigh Dickinson University found:
Overall, 42 percent of Americans believe that U.S. forces found active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq. Republicans are more likely to hold this belief than Democrats: fifty-one percent of Republicans think it's "probably" or "definitely" true that an active program was found after the 2003 invasion, with 14 percent saying that it was definitely true.
According to CBS News, "Nearly half of Americans incorrectly think President Obama started the the bank bailout program, otherwise known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a new poll shows. Just 34 percent of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center correctly said that TARP was enacted by the Bush administration."
Democrats' policy positions take play a smaller role in the outcomes than we'd like to think. What matters most is perception and spin, not substance.
I say all this as a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter who was highly critical of Hillary's hawkishness and friendliness to Wall Street. I am more horrified by the success of the GOP propaganda machine at polluting peoples' minds with conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and hatred.
I'm not asking for a pass for Hillary and the DNC. I acknowledge their corruptions and their mistakes. In particular, the Democrats shouldn't have selected Hillary, given her hawkishness, her ties to Wall Street, the extreme hatred of her by so many people, and the nation's populist mood. I'm asking for proportional accountability. Hillary, the Democratic Party, the country, and the world will pay a price far out of proportion to her culpability and to the accountability Trump and Republicans received for their many wrongdoings and statements.
Too often, Obama and Hillary were hawks and neoliberal sellouts. So, it's hard to feel sympathy for them -- except that Trump and the Republicans are far worse. My point is: the GOP had great success at exaggerating Hillary's crookedness while hiding their own. Trump was the Teflon Don, if ever there was one. In fact, not only was Hillary the lesser-of-two-evils, but she was good on on some issues and moderate on many others.
Republicans fight nasty. They're masters of dirty tricks and character assassination.
They go low, we go high, they win.
When Trump and the Republicans are tough, they are perceived as strong and bold. When Hillary was tough, she was portrayed as a harridan and a witch.
Democrats, on the other hand, are wimps, compared to the Republicans. In 2008, after eight years of misrule under Bush and the Republicans, Americans were eager for peace and for populist policies. As a candidate, Obama promised change. But once he was in office, Obama turned into a moderate. He tried to be post-partisan. He compromised early and often. He surrounded himself with Wall Street cornies. He wanted to look forward, so he hid the war crimes of the Bush Administration and the fraud of Wall Street banks from the American people. As Obama said of himself, "My policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies " back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican." Obama's unwillingness to fight, and to stand up to Wall Street and the defense establishment depressed turnout, angered many voters, and allowed Trump to pursue his populist playbook.
You may argue, with some validity, that Obama needed to compromise to get anything done. But politicians score few points by compromising. Obama should have fought hard for single-payer health care, or at least a public option. Instead, he allowed Max Baucus and other conservative Democrats to whittle down the Affordable Care Act in a fruitless attempt to win GOP backing. In the end, no Republican voted for it, and we were left with a health care plan designed by the Heritage Foundation and tested by Mitt Romney.
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