A study by political scientist Chris Parker, identifies a powerful and virtually defining trait of the Tea Party: its adherents believe that President Obama is not just a liberal in the tradition of Clinton, Gore, Kennedy, etc., but a unique threat to the country:
To capture the difference between the two camps, we asked whether or not people thought the following proposition true: "Barack Obama is destroying the country." If Tea Party conservatives were as extreme as some suggest, we thought asking a question of this type, i.e., fairly extreme, would tease out differences between the two camps. The data suggest the two conservative factions are divided on this question. Under these circumstances, 6% of non-Tea Party conservatives believe the president is destroying the country versus the 71% of Tea Party conservatives who believe this to be true.
I have a hard time figuring out how to interpret this sort of poll. I know that if, in 2005, a pollster had asked me if I thought George W Bush feaster upon the babies of christian parents to fortify his demonic soul, I would have said yes, not because I actually believed that, but because I would have wanted to express the intensity of my hatred for the man. However, if a pollster had asked me whether I thought Bush was a war criminal I would have also said yes, because I really believed it (and still do) to be so.
So how do we apply these findings to the Teahadists? I have always attributed the ridiculously high proportion of republicans who have doubts about whether Obama was born in the US to the former motivation -- they hate Obama and will agree with most any proposition that identifies with the intensity of their disdain. I bring this up because I've seen a number of conservatives I know (online and in real life) spontaneously express the same idea -- that Obama is deliberately destroying the country. They seem to really believe it. Maybe it's a willful delusion they are able to adopt, a form of groupthink. Or maybe it's just code -- a verbal hyperbolic shorthand for their belief that his policies are so awful.But, again, it seems heartfelt and genuine. I should point out that the study above was not a poll but a design which is supposed to tease out opinions that people might rather hide. Whether that adds credence or not I am not qualified to judge.
It's weird, and disturbing.
1 comment:
I don't know either. This is one of those things wherein I adopt a certain pont of view for a while, and then just feel my opinion changing for no reason. I certainly subscribed to the idea that there are people who hate Obama and they'd say anything in reesponse to a poll that suggested as much. However, there are still people introducing birther bills. AND, I don't think I would have said yes to a poll that asked whether W ate Christian babies to serve is Demonic Lord.
I don't know. I all makes me sad.
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