One Utah

It’s sad but true. Polls, surveys, and studies have long revealed that the majority of Americans are wrong, and frequently, on major issues.

That everyone thought the world was flat in Galileo’s day is not a good example. There was little available evidence to the contrary. But that is hardly the case on almost any issue today, and yet for example, in every poll a majority of Americans believe that the Biblical creation story is the literal truth about how humans came into existence and almost 85% believe it should be taught side by side with evolution in public schools. But it isn’t. Creationism isn’t taught in any public school because thankfully, the majority does not always rule and that’s a good thing.

Rep Urquardt is right. The World IS a complex place. That fact alone should give us pause before making assumptions or drawing opinions on just about anything much beyond the front of our noses. And yet we do. Just once, I’d like to see a Zogby poll in which 30, 40, or even 80% of the people answer “don’t know” instead of the usual 3-6% on more emotionally charged issues and 7-12% on boring questions like whether labor unions are important.

Ask any American if Bush is doing a good job fighting terrorism, everyone will have an opinion even though 90% of us did not know that Saddam was a non-secular ruler and 95% have no idea what the USS Cole is, or in what country it happened (Yemen) much less which continent Yemen is on.

But we are not stupid. A Zogby poll of troops serving in Iraq found that almost 90% think the war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, but 72% think we should exit Iraq by year’s end. No, Americans are not stupid, we are just very trusting, and even more opinionated. We need to learn to say, I don’t know.

The other truism founded in research, is that we tend to select media that supports our beliefs. A now famous study based on a series of seven US polls (never mentioned on Fox News) showed that “a majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war in Iraq.” The startling results prove conclusively that the overwhelming majority of Americans who supported the war in 2003 were misinformed about the facts. Specifically 48% incorrectly believed that evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda have been found, 22% that weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and 25% that world public opinion favored the US going to war with Iraq. “Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions.”

Another well publicized study in 2003 found “The avoidance of uncertainty, for example, as well as the striving for certainty, are particularly tied to one key dimension of conservative thought - the resistance to change or hanging onto the status quo.”

Which explains the results of this recent study that’s says, “though their numbers are declining, a majority of Republicans continue to believe that before the war, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or a major program for developing them and do not think that most experts believe Iraq did not have WMDs. A growing majority of Democrats believe the opposite on both points.

In an increasingly complex world it’s not possible for everyone to become fully informed on all the issues. So we need to do the next best thing; choose very carefully to whom we listen, and where we get the information from which we form opinions. We must be ever vigilant that our strength of conviction and need to be validated does not cloud our ability to judge who is telling us the truth, or who might have an over-riding self-interest in a certain belief.

All politicians know how gullible people are. Some choose to exploit it.

There’s a good chance that many uninformed Americans did not realize that the attempt in the Senate to ban flag desecration was simply a dirty GOP exercise in wedge-issue politics and thought that the reason for trying to amend the Constitution was the sheer number of flags now being burned on our streets.

So you have to figure, with our country embroiled in a disastrous war, 45 million Americans with no health insurance, gas prices through the roof and the biggest budget deficit in U.S. history occurring on his party’s watch, there’s got to be a lot of flag burning going on to make this such a priority for Senator Orrin Hatch.

According to The Citizens Flag Alliance , a big supporter of Hatch’s amendment there are an average of 8 flag desecrations per year. 66 Americans are struck by lightening annually.

The exploitation of our gullibility is inexcusable in a public servant.

Please, please vote for Pete Ashdown against Orrin Hatch in November because we deserve better.

This entry was posted Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 7:05 pm and is filed under 4th Estate (Media), National Politics, Peace, Republicans, Society, This Blog. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.