Are people really this stupid, or are they just funnin’ with the pollsters?
I hope, I hope, I hope they’re just messing with the pollsters’ minds.
Because otherwise, a great many of them are just profoundly stupid.
I refer to these poll results:
…51% of Democrats have a favorable impression of socialism, with 13% who share a Very Favorable one. This compares to favorables of 21% among GOP voters and 26% among unaffiliateds, with seven percent (7%) and five percent (5%) respectively who hold a Very Favorable opinion of it.
It’s not that 51% of Democrats who surprise me. I expect that. But what’s up with that 21% of GOP voters? How does someone who likes socialism vote for the GOP?
I know that some of you will say “well, those Republicans in the GOPe are practically socialists”—and I suppose that if you define “socialism” broadly enough, like support for any government entitlement program, then they are. But that’s a far-fetched definition. And one in five GOP voters? Seems very…odd.
And then there’s this:
Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Democrats, however, incorrectly believe the individual has more power than the government in a socialist system, a view held by just 12% of Republicans and seventeen percent (17%) of unaffiliated voters.
It’s one thing to support socialism and yet acknowledge what it is. But individual power? Excuse me? And 12% of Republicans think this?
Yes, I know—this may be the line the schools are pushing these days.
Or maybe the respondents are just giving the pollsters a hard time. I prefer this explanation, but I doubt it’s true.
[NOTE: This post was originally on my older blog and had comments, but unfortunately the comments didn’t transfer over here.]
It is a religion thing, Neo. GOP has a lot of religious support, but that doesn’t mean those religious traditions are sane.
Or maybe the respondents are just giving the pollsters a hard time. I prefer this explanation, but I doubt it’s true.
Waste of time. More fun to prank Nigerian email scams. Now it is probably Congo and Venezuelan.
As I mentioned on the old blog, I think they mean “social democracy” when they say “socialism.”
As for it making people more free, I think it goes back to FDR’s “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” — when the government helps you, in FDR’s view, it makes you more free, even if to a classical liberal it makes you less free. I think the modern lefty agrees with FDR against the classical liberal.