building a nation of know-nothings

[garboon]

Having shed much of his dignity, core convictions and reputation for straight talk, Senator John McCain won his primary on Tuesday against the flat-earth wing of his party. Now McCain can go search for his lost character, which was last on display late in his 2008 campaign for president.

Remember the moment: a woman with matted hair and a shaky voice rose to express her doubts about Barack Obama. “I have read about him,” she said, “and he’s not — he’s an Arab.”

McCain was quick to knock down the lie. “No, ma’am,” he said, “he’s a decent family man, a citizen.”

That ill-informed woman — her head stuffed with fabrications that could be disproved by a pre-schooler — now makes up a representative third or more of the Republican party. It’s not just that 46 percent of Republicans believe the lie that Obama is a Muslim, or that 27 percent in the party doubt that the president of the United States is a citizen. But fully half of them believe falsely that the big bailout of banks and insurance companies under TARP was enacted by Obama, and not by President Bush.

In the much-discussed Pew poll reporting the spike in ignorance, those who believe Obama to be Muslim say they got their information from the media. But no reputable news agency — that is, fact-based, one that corrects its errors quickly — has spread such inaccuracies.


So where is this “media?” Two sources, and they are — no surprise here — the usual suspects. The first, of course, is Rush Limbaugh, who claims the largest radio audience in the land among the microphone demagogues, and his word is Biblical among Republicans. A few quick examples of the Limbaugh method:

“Tomorrow is Obama’s birthday — not that we’ve seen any proof of that,” he said on Aug. 3. “They tell us Aug. 4 is the birthday; we haven’t seen any proof of that.”

Of course, there is proof as clear as that baseball box score. Look here, www.factcheck.org, for starters, one of many places posting Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate.

It’s curious, also, that any felon, drug addict, or recovering hedonist can loudly proclaim a sudden embrace of Jesus and be welcomed without doubt by leaders of the religious right. But a thoughtful Christian like Obama is still distrusted.

“I am a devout Christian,” Obama told Christianity Today in 2008. “I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” That’s not enough, apparently, for Rev. Franklin Graham, the partisan son of the great evangelical leader, who said last week that Obama was “born a Muslim because of the religious seed passed on from his father.”

Climate-change denial is a special category all its own. Once on the fringe, dismissal of scientific consensus is now an article of faith among leading Republicans, again taking their cue from Limbaugh and Fox.

It would be nice to dismiss the stupid things that Americans believe as harmless, the price of having such a large, messy democracy. Plenty of hate-filled partisans swore that Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic and Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew. So what if one-in-five believe the sun revolves around the earth, or aren’t sure from which country the United States gained its independence?

But false belief in weapons of mass-destruction led the United States to a trillion-dollar war. And trust in rising home value as a truism as reliable as a sunrise was a major contributor to the catastrophic collapse of the economy. At its worst extreme, a culture of misinformation can produce something like Iran, which is run by a Holocaust denier.

It’s one thing to forget the past, with predictable consequences, as the favorite aphorism goes. But what about those who refuse to comprehend the present?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/building-a-nation-of-know-nothings/

[The Bud Man]

A garboon is a snake, also someone who writes alot about nothing!

[1911A]

It’s not just that 46 percent of Republicans believe the lie that Obama is a Muslim ....

Per Pew:

The view that Obama is a Muslim is highest among his political opponents (31% of Republicans and 30% of those who disapprove of his job performance express this view). It is lower among his supporters (10% among both Democrats and those who approve of his job performance). The share of Republicans who say Obama is a Muslim has nearly doubled over the past year and a half – from 17% to 31%.

Currently, about as many Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim (31%) as believe he is a Christian (27%); a plurality of Republicans (39%) say they do not know Obama’s religion. In March 2009, far more Republicans said Obama was a Christian (47%) than a Muslim (17%).

The impression that Obama is a Muslim is also more widespread today among independents – 18% say this today, up from 10% in 2009. There has been virtually no change in the share of Democrats who say Obama is a Muslim (10% today, 7% in 2009). But even among Democrats, fewer than half (46%) now identify his religion as Christian, down from 55% last year.

...

When asked how they learned about Obama’s religion in an open-ended question, 60% of those who say Obama is a Muslim cite the media. Among specific media sources, television (at 16%) is mentioned most frequently. About one-in-ten (11%) of those who say Obama is a Muslim say they learned of this through Obama’s own words and behavior.

[mary51802]

Garboon..... not all climate change disbelievers are right. Many are independents I know and sond lefts. People who do their own research and do not listen to the media or earth pundits find out it is pretty much nature. Scientific and history websites from universities and scholars will show better reality.

Anyone who claims Obama not an American or is Muslim is just speculation. Media feeds this. He may be both due to his parentage but that is his business. If anybody is bothered if he is a Muslim is showing bigotry for a religion that purports peace, not the radical Taliban view. At least he is a man of God regardless.

[garboon]

A garboon is a snake, also someone who writes alot about nothing!

No need for name calling - really.  (unless of course, you are 12)

[mary51802]

Agreed Garbie... do not know why people resort to that instead of debating. We all have our own ideas and standings.

I figured this would have stopped with Gene's last "spanking".

[Wahoo]

Obama is the one who wants the world to believe he is a  Muslim .He himself is the one misleading the world that he is Muslim .You only have to look at his actions .Obama has labeled himself Muslim. Not the  American people .

[mary51802]

I found it funny that last night on the NBC nightly news in his NO interview when asked the question he skirted around it like slick Dick.

He never denied it and never came out and said he was Christian.

Just personally I do not care what religion he is but I believe he is being deceitful in how he answers questions. I heard his speech to NO and it was also just rah rah sound bites , no real answers.

[John Florida]

I found it funny that last night on the NBC nightly news in his NO interview when asked the question he skirted around it like slick Dick.

He never denied it and never came out and said he was Christian.

Just personally I do not care what religion he is but I believe he is being deceitful in how he answers questions. I heard his speech to NO and it was also just rah rah sound bites , no real answers.

  Mary you're on the money here. The other odd thing is that nobody ever asks or answers what he was before he joined up with Rev.Wrong.

[1911A]

Obama is the one who wants the world to believe he is a  Muslim .He himself is the one misleading the world that he is Muslim .You only have to look at his actions .Obama has labeled himself Muslim. Not the  American people .

This may interest you, Wahoo:

The White House blames the situation on a “misinformation campaign” from Obama’s opponents. But Obama and his aides might also blame themselves for the way they’ve handled the Muslim issue over the years.

The question did not come out of nowhere. As Obama said, his grandfather was a Muslim. His father was raised a Muslim before becoming, by Obama’s account, “a confirmed atheist.” Obama’s stepfather was a Muslim. His half-sister Maya told the New York Times that her “whole family was Muslim.”

Obama spent two years in a Muslim school in Indonesia and later, in a conversation with the Times’ Nicholas Kristof, described the Arabic call to prayer, the beginning of which he recited by heart, as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.” Given all that, it is entirely accurate and fair to describe Obama as having Muslim roots.

Yet during the campaign his aides shouted down even a measured discussion of the topic, and Obama’s critics could face ostracism simply for uttering the candidate’s middle name. In December 2007, with the Iowa caucuses approaching, former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Hillary Clinton supporter, said of Obama, “I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.” Kerrey’s remarks caused an uproar — one TV commentator wondered whether they were “poisoning the well” — and Kerrey later apologized.

Eighteen months later, when President Obama traveled to Cairo for a long-awaited speech to the Muslim world, the White House was saying, and the press was reporting, the same thing Kerrey had to apologize for. “President Obama is now embracing his Muslim roots,” ABC News’ “Nightline” announced. “President Obama’s speech … was laced with references to the Quran and his Muslim roots,” said USA Today. “Obama touched on his own Muslim roots,” reported the Associated Press.

Many people do not pay close attention to news reports. It’s entirely possible some of them blurred the distinction between “Muslim roots” and “Muslim,” especially since Obama in Cairo celebrated what his campaign had once downplayed. The public may be doing the same thing now, particularly after Obama chose a White House Ramadan iftar dinner to make a high-profile statement in support of the Ground Zero mosque.

Link

[The Bud Man]

Gaboon, sorry if I offended you, that comment was only intended in the contex that a "gaboon" is a viper (snake) that is native to Kenya.  Sorry!

[Wahoo]

Obama is the one who wants the world to believe he is a  Muslim .He himself is the one misleading the world that he is Muslim .You only have to look at his actions .Obama has labeled himself Muslim. Not the  American people .

It is also Obama who said the best sound he has ever heard on earth was the horns are bells that sound calling Muslims to prayer.

The American people did not say these things Obama did . Why is Obama everyday or so letting out small remarks to make the Muslims believe he is one of them and then denies he ever made those comments . He continues to give out conflicting answers .

[garboon]

Gaboon, sorry if I offended you, that comment was only intended in the contex that a "gaboon" is a viper (snake) that is native to Kenya.  Sorry!

I have never heard of a garboon snake (until now)

I may have to change my handle after reading what was in urban dictionary, here are some of the kinder ones:

1. to covertly sniff a ladies bicycle seat
2. An ashtray stand. Commonly found in public spaces or semi public spaces as a courtesy to patrons. The top of which is filled with a shallow layer of sand in a tray used to extinguish tobacco butts. Also found within the sand, gum, spit, boogers, matches and other small useless items found at the bottom of trouser pockets.
3. trash can; dust-bin
4. A wealthy Tycoon who made his fortune in garbage collection.
5. To plunge a victim's head into a toilet, preferably while flushing.
6. small particles of feces caught in anal hair see:dingleball

ANyway I believe O is a practicing self-professed christian and we all know there are folks out there spreading misinformation.

[1911A]

Nobody's spreading misinformation.  What's being disseminated is Duh Wun's own words and actions.

[chrstnhsbndfthr]

We have no idea what he actually believes. We can only look to his actions.  I for one, do not believe that he BELIEVES anything. He has no faith at all, except in himself and government, but then only with himself at the head of it.

He certainly used religion to advance that power, claiming various things at various times, to various audiences, designed to secure political advancement, but that has nothing at all to do with one's core beliefs.

Where he stands culturally speaking is certainly not Christian, though late in life he did have some contact with Christianity, apparently, yet no effect is shown in his life. But in his formative years he was raised in the Islamic Culture and that influence shows to this day in his speeches and behaviors. We need to clearly delineate between the religious belief and the cultural influence though. Remember there are many cultural Jews, but few who actually practice and believe in Judaism.  Some on the left appear confused by this concept, though possibly intentionally so.  I do not see fruits of any religious belief on his part, including that of Islam.

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