In case you missed this story last week, this is yet another demonstration of the stunning ignorance of American voters, as well as their bigotry, fear and hatred of “others.”
Steve Benen reported, Maybe we’ve always been at war with Agrabah:
Public Policy Polling has a well-deserved reputation for asking cheeky questions — in the middle of legitimate, proper surveys — that stand out for being funny. Today’s gem, however, is special, even by PPP standards.
Would you support or oppose bombing Agrabah?
Support bombing Agrabah 30%
Oppose bombing Agrabah 13%
Not sure 57%
And what, pray tell, is Agrabah? It’s a fictional city in a Disney movie called Aladdin. In other words, nearly a third of the country, asked about a made-up place with a kinda sorta Middle Eastern-sounding name, is ready to launch a bombing campaign.
The fictional city of Agrabah in Disney’s Aladdin.
For what it’s worth, there was a partisan difference in the results: a plurality of Democratic primary voters opposes bombing the imaginary place, while a plurality of Republicans are ready to launch a military offensive against the place that doesn’t exist.
Actually, the PPP poll contains more depressing results than this trick question. Salon reports, Poll: 30 percent of GOP voters support bombing any Arab sounding nation — even the fictional land of Aladdin:
According to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll, 30 percent of Republican primary voters nationally support bombing Agrabah, the made up home of Disney’s Aladdin, and 34 percent support Donald Trump for president.
* * *
Of those Republicans who would like to bomb the fictional land of Aladdin, support for Trump is at 45 percent. To their credit, 57 percent of Republicans at least responded that they weren’t sure if the U.S. should bomb the Arab sounding land while 13 percent opposed a bombing campaign in the Disney created nation.
Surprisingly, self-identified Tea Party members only accounted for 16 percent of respondents of the survey conducted over two days this week while half of all respondents identified as Evangelical Christians.
More than a quarter indicated that they would like to outright ban the religion of Islam from being practiced in the U.S. That number jumped to 42 percent of Trump supporters who think Islam should be illegal. Another 46 percent of Republican voters support a national Muslim registry although for 47 percent, shutting down all mosques is a bridge too far.
Christofascism is alive and well in America. What First Amendment religious liberty?
its the the thought that counts and there are more of them then there are white liberal elites! fortunately the minority vote makes up the difference!
Captain, I thought that was the major problem: Getting minorities to actually vote.
Do you honestly think a similar number of Democrats would not be equally ignorant on a similar subject if asked? Despite your desire to think otherwise, simply being a Democrat does not mean a superior intellect is to be found.
We know that people who watch FOX News are the least informed Americans, and that audience trends R, trends over 68 yrs old, and is 99% White.
We also know that the most informed Americans listen to NPR. Two thirds of NPR’s audience is aged 25-54. NPR’s audience is made up of people who earn over $50,000 annually and almost 2/3rds of listeners have college degrees, with half of those possessing advanced degrees. Only a third of listeners consider themselves conservative.
Regardless of the location, real or made up, most Democrats don’t want to bomb anywhere, and Republicans, including many of their candidates, have historically wanted to bomb anywhere. Remember Bomb,bomb,bomb, bomb, bomb Iran-McCain and now “carpet bomb” Cruz. Big talkers. Small thinkers.
I don’t have any facts to rebut what you say, Patricia, so I will accept what you state as the way it is. I also recall that, after losing the 2000 election, Democrats went to great lengths to point out the intellectual and financial superiority of the “Blue” regions over the “Red” regions, and the facts they cited were very similar.
As to Democrats not wanting to bomb anyone, I can’t neccessarily agree with you about that. Some Democrats obviously want to keep the bombing going, or we would have stopped by now. If nothing else, the President seems convinced the bombing needs to continue.
You’re not entirely wrong, but the percentage of Democrats who are functionally illiterate, while not insignificant, actually is a bit lower. But only a bit. I think I read in this study that 19% of Democrats also were not aware that Agrabah is mythical.
But here’s the thing, Steve. It’s the ignorant Democrats who tend to “cross over” and vote Republican on occasion. So, one way or another, it’s the Republicans who are preying on the ignorance of voters.
That sounds reasonable, Bob. And I have no logical argument against it.