Friday October 22, 2004

The Non-Reality-Based Community

A new study out of the University of Maryland underlines what makes me so frustrated and, yes, sad about the upcoming election. It also points to how successful the administration has been in misleading the public and what a terrible job the media has done in informing the same. The study polled both Bush and Kerry supporters about their beliefs on various issues. Kerry supporters did turn out to have a better grasp on the facts and on the positions of the challenger, but this is not about gloating — it’s about a point I’ve made before: If everyone had a grasp on even the non-controversial facts of the matter, this election would not be close. Some of the study’s findings:

• 47 percent of Bush supporters still believe that Iraq had WMD. This even after the Duefler Report concluded otherwise and the administration abandoned this contention.
• 63 percent of Bush supporters believe clear evidence has been found linking Iraq and al Qaeda. 55 percent believe this was the conclusion of the 9/11 commission, which concluded the opposite.
• And most depressing, 58 percent of Bush supporters say that, in the absence of WMD and a link to al Qaeda, the U.S. should have not gone to war and 61 percent assume Bush wouldn’t have if he had known this.

More than by who wins or loses, I’m kept awake at night by the fact that so much of the electorate is unwittingly voting against its most deeply held values.