Obama Derangement Syndrome—pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism—has infected the Republican Party. Here’s new data to prove it:
* 67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.
* 57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim
* 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was “not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president”
* 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is “doing many of the things that Hitler did”
* Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama “may be the Antichrist.”

These numbers all come from a brand-new Harris poll, inspired in part by my new book Wingnuts. It demonstrates the cost of the campaign of fear and hate that has been pumped up in the service of hyper-partisanship over the past 15 months. We are playing with dynamite by demonizing our president and dividing the United States in the process. What might be good for ratings is bad for the country.

The poll, which surveyed 2,230 people right at the height of the health-care reform debate, also clearly shows that education is a barrier to extremism. Respondents without a college education are vastly more likely to believe such claims, while Americans with college degrees or better are less easily duped. It’s a reminder of what the 19th-century educator Horace Mann once too-loftily said: “Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.”




  1. AntiChrist says:

    Guys, I just signed an executive order that limits baby killing using Federal dollars.

    My flying evil monkeys will deliver that order shortly.

  2. honeyman says:

    Why does no-one come out and say they hate Obama cos he’s black? I guess racism must be dead in America. Good work, Yanks.

  3. bac says:

    I can not wait to see the circus surrounding the next new president. Through out American history, there have been groups of people thinking the president was the worst since the founding fathers created this government.

    G. Ford was always tripping over his own feet and hitting people with golf balls.

    Jimmy Carter was surrounded by recession, fuel crisis, hostage crisis, billy beer and ufo wackos.

    It was very entertaining to watch B. Clinton get reemed because he received a BJ in the Whitehouse. Some of the reemers would later announce they had affairs.

    What can be said about Bush Jr that hasn’t been said already? He was a hero to all those people with IQs lower than 30 points.

    Obama is starting out well. What will the next few years bring? A side effect of Obama’s presidency is the implosion of the republican party and the rise of the tea party. Both parties make voting for the green party seem sane. welcome back Ralph Nader.

    Will the american government survive until its 300 birthday party?

  4. mcosmi says:

    i think uncle dave should stop contributing to this blog…everything he posts is liberal trash. I am no right winger, but im a conservative, and the shit dave posts is just out-there left wing garbage. John D. needs to regulate this blog more before it becomes what uncle dave would like it to be.

  5. Hmeyers says:

    For at least the last 10 years, the Republican Party has been dumbing down their rhethoric in an effort to shore up votes.

    It should come as little surprise that the chunk of that party represented by the Teabaggers — do they really know what they are protesting? What are they proposing as the solutions? I don’t think any of them know — would think Obama is the anti-Christ.

    A party that embraces anti-intellectualism and simple thinking is going to have members with some oddball views.

    Such is the price of dumbing down the conversation.

  6. woody says:

    booboo says …”thanks for demonstrating the truth of this thread. He, he. Better spoken than the sputtering wingnuts that make the news, but wingnut still.”

    Meh

    …”So, bottom line, you “think” Obama is like Hitler in any way that is relevant?”

    Har! Maybe you could rephrase the question in to English?

    …You think he is a “Muslim.”
    I didn’t say it, he did. Why is the word Muslim in quotes?

    …How many Muslims spend 20 years in a South Side Protestant Church listening to Reverand (you mean Reverend, amirite?) Wright?
    Have you ever heard the term conversos? Why did he wear a kippah when he lit the menora or went to the wailing wall? Does that make him jewish? Spending time in a Protestant Church makes you a protestant?

    …And you are a birther.

    As opposed to someone who looks at a document scan on the internets and says, SEE! UNDENIABLE PROOF!

    Ok booboo. When you grow up and leave skool, mebe you understand working class fools that actually have to pay taxes.

    woody

  7. bobbo, a student of History says:

    #86–woodman==ideas can always be morely expressed, but c’mon, beating a mule in public is not pretty.

    1. Do you “really” think Obama is like Hitler enough to make the comparison? YOU and I are like Hitler too in that we both put on our socks before we put on our shoes.

    So tell us===how is Obama like Hitler?

    2. He said I am a Muslim? No. I recall that clip from a few years ago. Add a few words before and after that clip and he is not saying he is a Muslim. The use of that clipped video for that purpose is so farcical, its like you are pretending to be that stupid. You aren’t THAT stupid are you woody?

    3. I’ve never looked for Obama’s birth certificate==only an idiot would.

    So–as stated===thanks for demonstrating what this thread is all about. Until you crawl out from under your rocks, its hard to believe you guys actually exist outside of made for youtube videos.

    Stay in school===but take a few classes will ya?

  8. faustus says:

    uncle dave is pretty much like all the other politically correct babyboomers that rolled over a very long time ago… not sure which category he falls under, his mother didn’t breast feed him until he was ten, or took away his pacifier at twelve, but probably he saw other naked boys in p.e. class for the first time and it changed him in unspeakable ways… it was something… it aways is with babyboomers. but something made him and is kind hate america to the point they want to destroy it and destroying it they are… they drive a honda, drink heineken, use linux ripedoff ware, you name it. they vote for every wacko goof ball that runs for office and then to top it off they make up shit like this and then point fingers and all the while its just a cover for dipshits like pelosi and obama to open the doors to the country for criminals like those marching in dc under the banner of “justice” to completely loot the country. you have to love the boomers what they haven’t managed to steal they will make sure gets given away. too bad their mothers took them off the tit too soon because most of them would still be on it.

  9. woody says:

    So tell us===how is Obama like Hitler?

    Obama is nothing like Hitler. Hitler had a good economy.

    …2. He said I am a Muslim? No. I recall that clip from a few years ago. Add a few words before and after that clip and he is not saying he is a Muslim. The use of that clipped video for that purpose is so farcical, its like you are pretending to be that stupid. You aren’t THAT stupid are you woody?

    I never called him a muslim, but I will call you a dolt.

    …3. I’ve never looked for Obama’s birth certificate==only an idiot would.

    Hmm, I have not spent the time looking for Obama’s BC either, but then I’m in Texas and have a full time job. Idiots did yeoman work on finding every little piece of Palin’s dirty laundry, but not much is known about Mr Sotero other than most “idiots” consider him the legitimate sitting president.

    …So–as stated===thanks for demonstrating what this thread is all about. Until you crawl out from under your rocks, its hard to believe you guys actually exist outside of made for youtube videos.

    Yes my rocks are actually big enough to hide me. Youtube is valuable as an archivist tool. Perhaps George Stephanuffleupagus could correct me as to my religious affiliation as well. I call myself a muslim by mistake every once in a while.

    …Stay in school===but take a few classes will ya?

    Please, condescension isn’t a clever debating tactic. Besides, If I were in school these days, I’d demand my money back.

  10. RBG says:

    71 bobbo
    #69–RBG==I’m almost afraid to ask but are you confusing/conflating Gulf War One with No Two?

    I don’t think so… Let me check:

    “Saddam routinely cited his survival as “proof” that Iraq had in fact won the war against the U.S. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein

  11. Buffet says:

    It’s all true man.

  12. angry says:

    REP. DINGELL SAYS OBAMACARE WILL EVENTUALLY ‘CONTROL THE PEOPLE’

  13. sss says:

    And I find this poll extremely suspiciously timed…I know tons of Republicans (here in rural Texas of all places), and I know of maybe 2 out of dozens who might hold one of these beliefs. The rest dislike him, but because of his politics, not because they think he’s the Antichrist.

    I think the data is faked. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  14. MikeN says:

    >Every citizen born in the USA is a Natural Born Citizen. The parents could both be foreigners; they could be illegal aliens, and the child is a Natural Born Citizen because hw was born in the USA.

    Actually this is not true with regards to citizenship. Not everyone born in the US is a citizen of the US. The primary exception are children of diplomats. There was a case to be made that one of the US citizen Al Qaeda, maybe it was Hamdi, was in fact not a citizen.

  15. MikeN says:

    Did the poll ask if they thought Barack Obama Sr was Barack Obama’s father?

  16. ellenbarrons says:

    Re: “And the birth certificate? You libscum say you’ve seen it on the internet, so it has to be true.”

    First, no president has ever shown his birth certificate before. Bush didn’t, Reagan didn’t, JFK didn’t. None did, and yet we accepted their claims to have been born in the USA.

    In contrast to all who went before, Obama HAS posted (and showed the physical copies to both FactCheck and Politifact) the official birth certificate of Hawaii. The document posted called Certification of Live Birth is now the official birth certificate of Hawaii, and it is the only birth certificate that Hawaii issues. It no longer issues copies of the original birth certificate. But it is accepted as proof of birth in the USA by the US State Department and the branches of the US military, and in Obama’s case the facts on the document were confirmed twice by the officials in Hawaii.

  17. Floyd says:

    “The most obvious proof is that the AntiChrist will not need a teleprompter…”

    …is that she writes her talking points on her hand.

  18. bobbo, international pastry chef and rhetoric master says:

    #89–wooddy===its good to see that continued engagement clears things up. We have now established that YOU think:

    1. Obama is nothing like Hitler.
    2. Obama is not a Muslim.
    3. Obama’s birth certificate is an irrelevant issue.

    Why you just can’t come out and say this rather than strike by ambiguous innuendo is something you can work on.

    #90–RBG==that quote has nothing to do with the issue you raised. It addresses Saddam’s propaganda resulting from GW One. YOU said when Obama took office the Iraq war was essentially won and that is addressing GW2. You are conflating issues.

    #93–angry==grasping at straws joins woody in taking the smallest clip possible to falsely claim some point or another. Pathetic.

  19. woody says:

    booboo says,
    89–wooddy===its good to see that continued engagement clears things up. We have now established that YOU think:

    1. Obama is nothing like Hitler.
    2. Obama is not a Muslim.
    3. Obama’s birth certificate is an irrelevant issue.

    Why you just can’t come out and say this rather than strike by ambiguous innuendo is something you can work on.

    #1 true

    #2 False, though I can understand occasional slip up as to what he believes. I keep calling myself a jew, but George Stephanaphagalapagos corrects me.

    #3 False. Barry Sotero is not a natural born citizen. But I don’t think he’s the antichrist, because muslims don’t hate on Jesus like many of the atheist here do.

  20. bobbo, international pastry chef and social critic says:

    #102–woddy==ok,I got that wrong. We’re working on 2 &3.

    2. So you think Obama is a Muslim because of 8 words on a clipped video??? Do you have any other evidence?

    3. Where do you think Obama was born?

  21. Glenn E. says:

    I believe that what we’re witnessing is the great IQ divide, in America. Not just who has a college degree or not, that believes all this Obama hatred crap. But who has the mental capacity, not to be so easily mislead. To remember all the lies and deceptions of past administrations, political parties and movements. Like the Swift Boaters, who helped derail the 2004 election.

  22. woody says:

    booboo, Barry Sotero called himself a muslim. Sure he’s a liar, so maybe he was lying. I dunno.

    He was born in Kenya, or at least he was in 2004 according to an MSM article.

    web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm

    And according to many MSM reports, Barry is related to Dickless Cheney. I believe Dickless IS the antichrist.

    http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=Barack+Obama+related+to+Dick+Cheney&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=bcdf8cbbf06dc4f

    It’s on the internets, it must be true.

    woody

  23. smartalix says:

    Those right-wing extremist idiots want to turn America into white people hate-triot Belindia, and are pissed that Obama is in the way.

  24. Uncle Patso says:

    “Them collidge boiz think ther soo smart! Ah nevver red a buk in mah hole lahf, but Ahm sharp en no wut’s whut! Saint Rush tole me so!”

    You might as well completely give up ever changing the mind of a birther. They are true fanatics, unable to change their minds and unwilling to change the subject.

  25. the daub says:

    I am wondering why if I disagree with the President, because I might think otherwise on a topic than him, that I am a kook, or a racist, or a Republican, I though we were a free nation. Maybe the Republicans are right? If we disagree the camps are waiting for us!


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