delusional & delusionaler

The graphic shows partial results of a poll constructed by Dartmouth Professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted last month by the professional pollsters at YouGov. (Click on it to improve legibility.) There was lots more to it than what's shown above, and the results are analyzed in more detail here.

However, the figures from this poll commentators have zeroed in on so far are the same ones we can expect pundits to hammer on going forward, which show that significantly more than half of all Republicans believe to this day that we invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was threatening us with a big pile of doomsday weapons, and that President Obama was born outside the United States.

I'm neither surprised nor dismayed by this. I've known for a long time that most Republicans are convinced that "I'm entitled to my own opinion" means the same thing as "I'm entitled to my own facts," and, feeling tremendous resentment toward the world they see unraveling in front of them, feel entitled to construct one they like better, inside their heads.

So, are we to conclude, then, that Republicans are delusional? That's not news, and if you wonder why this particular aspect of this particular story is getting so much play (check for yourself on Google or Yahoo), stop thinking about Republicans, and turn your attention to the Democrats.

When it comes to spreading propaganda, Democrats tend to choose tools like the hypodermic needle, so as to inoculate sleeping victims. Republicans, of course, prefer a combination of the sledge hammer and the Goebbels technique, with a lot of yelling and arm-waving.

To clearly conceptualize the difference in propaganda techniques, see this Huffington Post story from yesterday, on the topic of this poll. Read it carefully, and if you don't agree that this is subtle, low-key, but very definitely anti-Republican, pro-Obama Democratic Party propaganda, I'll eat Karl Rove's tighty whiteys.

It doesn't much concern me that most Republicans think that Saddam was about to smoke us like so many little oysters, if we didn't whack him first. It's a nice cowboy narrative that gives pleasure to a lot of cowboys -- that's just how they are. We don't get upset at a fire because it's hot.

And anyway, I've seen polls that show over half of us disbelieve Darwin's thesis, and according to Morris Berman*, 12 percent of us believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Everybody has to be somewhere.

Forget these bimbos, these Republicans and Democrats. Now's the time.

The revolution won't be accomplished by confrontation, but by passive-aggressive means, by boycotts, absenteeism, migration out. Goin' up the country, baby, don't you wanna go?

We are leaving. You don't need us.


*in The Twilight of American Culture.