Idiocracy

Okay, clearly, I am far from neutral on this point, but let's face it, one of our major political parties is as dumb as a sack of hair. In this assessment, I include both Republican base voters and elected officials. And the ones who aren't purposefully courting ignorance are certainly abetting it in a cynical attempt to further their hold on power.

To wit:

A majority of Republicans reject the scientific consensus on global warming:

Eighty percent of Democrats report having high trust in scientists, compared with 63 percent of independents and 46 percent of Republicans, according to the Stanford poll data. Partly as a result, Democrats’ concern about climate change is far higher than Republicans’ concern. Americans, as a whole, are less concerned about global warming than people in other rich countries largely because of low levels of concern among Republicans.

Thanks GOP for making us look like fools on the international stage (not to mention destroying the planet for future generations)!

A majority of Republicans believe that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, rather than having evolved over time, contrary to all available, you know, evidence:

First off, Republicans are simply systematically less likely to believe in evolution than Democrats or Independents. And according to Pew, neither the religious nor ethnic makeup of the Republican electorate can fully explain away this difference.

Second, there is almost no difference between Democrats and Independents: in both categories about two-thirds of respondents express a belief in evolution.

Finally, while the beliefs of Democrats and Independents have been relatively stable over the past four years, Republican belief in evolution has fallen by almost one-fifth: while 54 percent of Republicans expressed a belief in evolution in 2009, only 43 percent did so in 2013.

Yes, you read that right. They are actually getting dumber.

A majority of Republicans live in an alternate universe where Iraq definitely had WMD, even though they were never, ever found:

The poll, constructed by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2, found that fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view.

Imaginary WMD? Duh.     Fossil record? No Waaay.

And those are just three quick examples off the top of my head. We could just as easily talk about all the ignorance surrounding the Affordable Care Act; or how Red states think their tax dollars are supporting all those urban brown people, when in reality it's the cosmopolitan blue states supporting them; or even how when rape is legitimate "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

You can see why Republicans at all levels of power are trying to gut our public education system, from pre-K through college. They rely on a large contingent of dumbasses who can be easily manipulated into voting for policies that benefit a small cadre of the already rich and powerful at the expense of the rest of us.

Oh, and like I said in a previous post, the self-styled "moderate Republican voters" who like to pretend  their party hasn't been infected by a prion disease don't get to escape judgment either. If you still can't figure out that "Eisenhower" or "Rockefeller" or whatever name you want to call them Republican  politicians no longer exist, you get called a moron too.

Yeah, you bet I'm angry. It's depressing that people who seem to take pride in ignoring evidence of any and all reality that contradicts their ideology get to make decisions that have profound ramifications for our lives and our descendants'. I know that pointing and mocking is probably not the most effective way to win over hearts and minds to our side, but at this point I'm not sure the average Republican voter or lawmaker has either one.