New Survey Unscores the Insanity of the GOP Base

The results of a new Public Policy Polling survey confirm that the swamp fever gripping the Republican Party base is even worse than many would have liked to believe.  The GOP of my parents' generation or even of 25 years ago is gone and a near insane asylum has taken its place.  Now, ignorance is a virtue, bigotry is a virtue and many KKK members no doubt feel completely at home in the party.  If one has ever wondered how the civilization of the Roman Empire descended into the horrors of the Dark Ages, the decline of the GOP provides a glimpse in microcosm.  How does one even begin to try to reason with those who are so utterly detached Here are some of the survey findings:

Our new poll finds that Trump is benefiting from a GOP electorate that thinks Barack Obama is a Muslim and was born in another country, and that immigrant children should be deported. 66% of Trump's supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he's a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was. And 63% want to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship, to only 20% who want to keep things the way they are. 

 

Trump's beliefs represent the consensus among the GOP electorate. 51% overall want to eliminate birthright citizenship. 54% think President Obama is a Muslim. And only 29% grant that President Obama was born in the United States. That's less than the 40% who think Canadian born Ted Cruz was born in the United States. 

 

Trump's supporters aren't alone in those attitudes though. Only among supporters of John Kasich (58/13), Jeb Bush (56/18), Chris Christie (59/33), and Marco Rubio (42/30) are there more people who think President Obama was born in the United States than that he wasn't. And when you look at whose supporters are more inclined to think that the President is a Christian than a Muslim the list shrinks to just Christie (55/29), Kasich (41/22), and Bush (29/22).

 

Bush's inability to appeal to the kind of people who hold these beliefs is what's keeping him from succeeding in the race- his overall favorability is 39/42, and with voters identifying themselves as 'very conservative' it's all the way down at 33/48.