According to a Washington Post/ABC poll, only 21% of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. That is getting dangerously close to the percentage of Americans who believe they have seen UFOs or alien craft or have been abducted by aliens. I think they may be the same individuals.
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Republicans reach long-term low
Posted on: April 30, 2009 9:48 PM, by Greg Laden
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Comments
That's pretty bad. You can scrape together 21% for almost anything. And yet, there's no sign of the bottom for them yet.
Maybe it's the decline of the third 2-Party System?
Posted by: marek | April 30, 2009 10:00 PM
If a conservative party drives out a guy like Specter for being too left-leaning, something is very wrong with conservatism.
As I said before, currently, intelligent republicans call themselves moderate democrats, as being related in any way to people like Limbaugh, Palin, Steele, Bachman and the like could taint them for a long time.
Posted by: Mankel | April 30, 2009 10:19 PM
I don't have a citation off the top of my head (and a quick google search doesn't help) but I'm pretty sure I've seen studies that show that belief in UFOs is more common among the left in the US than the right. Although once you get to an extreme enough views any ridiculous idea starts to make sense. Didn't Kent Hovind at one point claim that UFOs were actually demons?.
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | April 30, 2009 10:30 PM
Actually, that's pretty basic math. Admit one contradiction to a formal system and you can prove absolutely anything.
What with "freedom," "limited government," "warrantless wiretaps," "law and order," "torture," "imperial presidency," etc. there are way more than the necessary number of formal contradictions. At that point, the wave functions of Rush Limbaugh and Bob Boze Bell collapse.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 30, 2009 10:37 PM
D.C., Humans aren't formal systems. I don't think that's what is going on here although it made be related. I suspect that what occurs in part is that there are many ideas that will be seen as silly if one has minimal critical thinking skills. So belief in them is correlated since they are being caused by failures of the same basic mechanisms.
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | April 30, 2009 11:07 PM
I think I knew that :-)
That's what I was alluding to. At best, as you note, it represents a resistance against cognitive dissonance. At worst, it's the wetware equivalent of getting the original NCC 1701's computer to accept a paradox as input: sparks all over the place.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | May 1, 2009 4:13 AM
Yes, according to WikiQuotes:
Posted by: blf | May 1, 2009 6:43 AM
I believe in UFOs. I believe there are flying objects that have not been identified. I just don't believe that they are extra-terrestrial, supernatural, or demonic. We really should use a better term for belief in aliens.
Posted by: catgirl | May 1, 2009 11:47 AM
Twenty one percent and declining. If the conservative sheep that follow the Limbaugh and Hannity message of flushing and purging the party of moderates and rino's is adopted, the party will self destruct. The changing demographics and the reintroduction of the McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Bill(AMNESTY BILL)will end the obstructionist party of no and chances of ever becoming relevant on the political scene again. Most of the 13 to 30 million illegals that will be given amnesty will become registered Democrats. The Republican party of today will never survive this new wave of American youth and immigrants.
Posted by: Packeryman | May 9, 2009 8:46 AM