Krauthammer takes on moral arrogance in his column today:
This being a democracy, don’t the Democrats see that clinging to this agenda will march them over a cliff? Don’t they understand Massachusetts?
Well, they understand it through a prism of two cherished axioms: (1) The people are stupid and (2) Republicans are bad. Result? The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.
Liberal expressions of disdain for the intelligence and emotional maturity of the electorate have been, post-Massachusetts, remarkably unguarded.
Now comes a new Gallup poll assessing American preferences for socialism, which is viewed negatively by 58% of all citizens, but favorably by 53% of all Democrats.
Perhaps this poll result provides something of an explanation:
Republicans, on average, answered one more question correctly than Democrats (5.9 vs. 4.9 correct). These differences are partly a reflection of the demographics of the two groups; Republicans tend to be older, well educated and male, which are characteristics associated with political and economic knowledge. Still, even when these factors are held constant, Republicans do somewhat better than Democrats on the knowledge quiz.
Remind me again: Who’s out of touch?
We can only hope that those in the bubble in DC find out the answer to your question come November. But based on the previous post on Senator Shelby I’m not so sure the Republicans are all that in tune as well.
The jobs creation proposals from both sides seem to reflect the fundamental disconnect that both parties have with the real economic situation and how decades of economic and trade policy mismanagement have left us with few good options to reverse the trend. It was reported in one article I read yesterday the the President’s budget proposal (which usually is based on rosy scenarios) shows entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) consuming 40% of all Federal spending next year exclusive of the interest to fund them. Projected growth is to 60% in twenty years.
So tell me – who from which party is offering ANY solution to address that time bomb? And where, will we get money to operate even one Carrier Battle Group, let alone build a new one, lest we address this fundamental disconnect with reality?
The figures are form the President’s own budget not some right wing group intent on his destruction. And yet we are told we need another Entitlement program to solve our problems. The worst thing is I actually think they believe their own BS.
The funny thing is the Chinese probably have as much to worry about seeing how devaluation of their debt holdings seems inevitable once inflation kicks in as it will, as it must. You can’t fool Mother nature.
I scored 12 out of 12, besting 98% of respondents.
I have, over the last nine years, gone from never voting for a Democrat to never, ever, ever, EVER voting for a Democrat, with a brief stop at never, ever.
And I’m stupid because of that. Or so they tell me with invective-laced, grammatically incorrect, and poorly spelled comments.
My mother always told me to “consider the source.” She had a great point.
That said, there is no Party for me, a small government fiscal and foreign policy hawk that leans heavily towards PYOW/MYOB* when it comes to societal issues.
* PYOW: Pull Your Own Weight
MYOB: Mind You Own Business
I scored the same. The question aren’t much for any one who is decently informed. It’s kind of sad to see the rest of the scores. So much ignorance. No wonder the country is in such deep trouble.
11 of 12 here. The ten percent unemployment figure is a trick question. That’s the published number, but others maintain the rate is far higher. I went with the higher number.
+1, 12/12, & I have a teensy hope teh Tea Party might fill the bill.
11 out of 12; I could have sworn there was at least one Republican Senator who voted for the health bill, so I went with the lowest non-zero number. I was probably thinking of a Representative instead.
Intellectual elitism sucks. nuff said
“So much worse for the facts.”
——–Bertrand Russell
You don’t place much credance in a man who wrote an extensive book to show that 1+1=2 do you?
That book broke him. He did very little after that, for which we can be thankful.
Um, Russell wrote Principia Mathematica pretty early in his career, and it hardly broke him. You can not like him without misrepresenting his career.
That wasn’t my opinion. The people who have said that were actually sympathetic to him. I was simply being charitable.
I’m not, quite frankly, sympathetic and that book really was a melange of utter nonsense. I would say he was broken long before he wrote, because he never really accomplished much before or after. The quote VX makes is pretty typical of the man, and he never did allow the facts to get in his way.
So early or not, it matters little.
I scored 11 out of 12. Still makes me more well-informed that the politicians we put there. God…
Nice turn of phrase. Right up there with Gary Trudeaus ‘His modesty could fill up a room” from Doonsbury about 20 years ago.
The problem with most of those who wander very far left of center is that they are filled with idealism and altruism. Not in and of itself a bad thing, but they are so full of those that there is no room for realism. Or the idea that they just might be wrong. Toss in some liberal white guilt, and then they are capable of anything.
But, then, Obama isn’t white, or is he? 8-P
I only got 11 right. Do I get to stay here? I got the first one wrong, because I don’t believe the Governments claim that unemployment is under 10%.
Only us big branes who got 12 of 12 can stay.
Better check with Lex on his score. You might be about to ban the host
Ah, anyone the MSM tells you they are, or the Chief of Staff, when you don’t just do as he (and his boss) says.
If they continue the lie in neat little sound bites, then the majority of the unthinking (the real mind-numbed robots) will begin to regurgitate it as frequently as a matter of greetings, and other salutations between people. Maybe they’ll even come up with a text based shorthand like “RAS” (republicans are stupid).
Damn. . .11/12.
I could have sworn it was 2/3 majority to break a filibuster. Don’t tell my old civics prof.
11/12. Not too bad. I wasn’t in on the original poll. Maybe their findings would’ve been a bit different.
The irony of the split opinion on big business, which government decries as greedy, is that big government thrives on big business through the lobbies. Government vilifies that which feeds it. Ain’t that special?
As for the rest, we could certainly use a little more common sense as a common virtue amongst the working class.
11/12….
Happy to say I got 12 fer 12, but that filly-buster one I only got because it’s been in the news. The 2/3 majority idea I recall from h.s. civics, but maybe that’s only for override of a pres. veto.
Regarding the general inability of the public to score well on such civics tests and also consider other economic systems to be superior: Well, what do you expect when they have been educated that way? One might think there is a conspiracy in that those who run academic institutions today, who tend to be left leaning, are educating their charges in the socialist point of view. Never mind that socialist economies have failed or are currently failing almost everywhere – we can’t have them teach that!
Heck, the Brits went the socialist route, Mrs. Thatcher’s party pulled them part way out, they had some economic turnaround, and the citizens promptly voted themselves a left wing Labor gov’t again. What does that tell you about humanity?
George V.
12/12 but then I went to the North Avenue Trade School where we learned to pay attention.
12 for 12. Given that I don’t watch the pundits on TV, and gain most of my news from places like Drudge Report, Breitbert, a few on-line newspapers and two hours of radio while driving, the implications of one as poorly-informed as I doing better than over 90% of the population is absolutely terrifying.
– Max
“No matter how far the ideological pendulum swings in the short term, in the end the bedrock common sense of the American people will prevail.”
We can only hope…
Oh, BTW, 12 of 12…
Heh, Marianne and me… Come on Marianne, take the test. It will take you under one minute!
Are we stupid? I don’t think so…
Are all the twelvers, all 2% of us right here on libertarians R Us, aka Lex’s looney losers? How big’s their sample We might have a corner on the market
“We might have a corner on the market.”
Scary, verry scary.
By the way, did you notice the averages, Repub = 5.9 / 12, Dem = 4.9 / 12 on the Pew poll of public knowledge? Krauthammer says that to Republicans, “the peasants are revolting” is encouraging, but to Democrats, it’s a pun. Could this be why they think so?
My quiz score? Just like TheWunWhoWon’s unemployment rate — it’s whatever number I say it is.
babs dear … I know I should take the test and prove to myself that I still “have all my buttons” so to speak. But some days I don’t feel that I have. So I must regretfully decline, thus to keep some of my illusions/delusions.
There is one bright spot today, though. Washington D.C. is going to get thirty inches of snow today and tonight. Let’s all rejoice. It’ll be the first time they’ve been pure and innocent in my lifetime which, as we all know, is a long one. On top of that, Senator Centerfold, Scott Brown, took the oath of office from Slow Joe Biden and is now the 41st grown-up in the Senate. Whoopie!
Anyway, babs, everyone here knows we’re not stupid, and that we mean well.
Marianne
Senator Centerfold, LOL! Cute title, that!
12/12… how’s that for your friendly “Good Neighbor”?
I had coffee with a died in the wool union man just the other day. He referred to the “right-to-work states” as Republican states one too many times, so I offered him the recently learned observation that we are all living in “Red States” with “Blue Metropolitan” areas in some of them. Honestly, he didn’t get it.
While we’re on labels, I heard someone in my own “blue metropolitan” area referring to Republicans as elitist, racist, bigots. Being an independent, I just supposed they hadn’t time to formulate an opinion yet.
I remember some years ago watching some of the goings on at a Dem National Convention and one of the network news anchors making the comment there were more millionaires attending the Dem Convention that were at the Rep convention earlier.
Elitist, racist, bigots are simply words that come to Dem minds when they are looking in the mirror. I just tell them to get their face out of the mirror and join the rest of us on this side of the looking glass. The reaction is never friendly, particularly when I’m laughing at them.
One of the eternal truths I’ve learned in the past few years is that People accuse you of what they would do, or be, themselves. Watching Congress and this Administration only confirms this truism.
Besides, it makes you feel better when you’ve been insulted.
Marianne