BobHarris.com - Major New Survey: Bush Supporters Simply Wrong On Facts, Unaware Of Bush's Positions

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Major New Survey: Bush Supporters Simply Wrong On Facts, Unaware Of Bush's Positions

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Thursday, 21 October 2004

From Jim Lobe's story posted on Alternet, concerning a new survey (.pdf) of about 900 random, equally pro-Bush or pro-Kerry folks -- roughtly the same sample used in Zogby, Gallup, and other national polls we see every day:

Three out of 4 self-described supporters of President George W. Bush still believe that pre-war Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or active programs to produce them... the same number also believes that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein provided "substantial support" to al Qaeda.

Bush supporters are also quite demonstrably wrong on the man's actual positions:

The poll also found a major gap between Bush's stated positions on a number of international issues and what his supporters believe Bush's position to be...

In particular, majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assume that he supports multilateral approaches to various international issues, including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (69 percent), the land mine treaty (72 percent), and the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming (51 percent)...

In all of these cases, majorities of Bush supporters said they favored the positions that they imputed, incorrectly, to Bush. Large majorities of Kerry supporters, on the other hand, showed they knew both their candidate's and Bush's positions on the same issues.

Bush voters also have no freakin' clue how hated the dude is in the rest of the world:

Despite a steady flow over the past year of official statements by foreign governments and public-opinion polls showing strong opposition to the Iraq war, less than one-third of Bush supporters believe that most people in foreign countries oppose the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. Two-thirds believe that foreign views are either evenly divided on the war (42 percent) or that the majority of foreigners actually favors the war (26 percent)...

Similarly, polls conducted during the summer in 35 major countries around the world found that majorities or pluralities in 30 of them favored Kerry for president over Bush by an average of margin of greater than two to one. Yet 57 percent of Bush supporters believe that a majority of people outside the U.S. favor Bush's re-election, while 33 percent think that foreign opinion is evenly divided.

Kerry supporters, since you asked, display a vastly greater awareness of all of the above. But you knew that.

The study concludes that a lot of folks are still too traumatized by 9/11 to think clearly. Maybe so. You almost feel sorry for these people. (Bush, on the other hand, can only be characterized as an extremely successful exploiter of fear and trauma, with horrific consequences.)

When you're not just terrified of the price we might all pay for this massive paralyzed ignorance.