GOP pollster Frank Luntz gathers some Republicans in Iowa together to watch President Obama being interviewed by Bill O'Reilly. The results are predictably horrifying:
There are a few interesting things going on here. The first couple of people argue that Obama's problem is essentially that he's too dumb. "I don't think he has a grasp on how serious this could be," says one. "He doesn't seem to know what the details are." "He talks about making them into a republic. ... He doesn't know what a republic is," says the second, contempt dripping from his voice. Then we find out that a third of the group believes that Obama is a Muslim. Another one says, "His religious belief is liberalism, and that's the most intolerant religion of all." That might sound odd to you (after all, aren't liberals criticized for being too tolerant?), unless you're familiar with the rhetoric on Fox News and conservative radio, where you can bet dollars to donuts these folks get much of their information. You see, liberal intolerance is a regular theme in those quarters, where people being wrongly accused of racism is a far more frequent and consequential problem than actual racism, and Christians are forever under siege by liberals trying to take away their rights.
Then we get more: "He is Neville Chamberlain in 1939," says one man. "I think he believes America's at fault for the world's problems," adds another. This too is a regular theme of conservative media: Obama blames everything on America and he doesn't think we're a great nation. Don't bother showing them the dozens of speeches in which he sings America's praises -- it's all a ruse hiding his true beliefs.
During the brief discussion of Obama's religion, Luntz starts to tell them they're going to be condemned for their absurd beliefs. "Do you understand the implications of what you're saying here, what the media's going to say about this group?" he asks. "You realize what you're opening up here?" They all voice what sounds like assent -- in other words, that darn liberal media criticizing them will be a validation that they're right. And then at the end, we cut back to Sean Hannity, the answer to the question of where they get this stuff.
I wonder what educated, informed Republicans think of this kind of thing. The fact that so many of their ideological brethren believe these kinds of things is, for the most part, of substantial political benefit to their side. But doesn't it make them feel embarrassed? I'm not sure.
