It's Official; The Voters Were Ignorant [The NY Times Said So]

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It's Official; The Voters Were Ignorant [The NY Times Said So]

By Eric George
Nov. 8, 2004

I was browsing the online New York Times this morning and an interesting article came up. Apparently a majority of Bush voters are persisting in thinking Sadam Hussein had actual WMD's or at least a substantial manufacturing program. A majority also believed that he was funding and supporting Al Qaeda, and that the 9/11 commission had stated that as a fact.

Here is a quick quote from the article "A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion."

I went a little further and searched for the original survey, and found it at http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html. It's worth a read. It lists several other serious misconceptions.

So how come so many voters arrived at the polling stations under the influence of some very serious untruths? Why, in the information age, had so many people got it so wrong? They must have got these ideas from some-where - they did not just fall with the autumn leaves.

They could not have come via Republican politicians because, as a party running a campaign founded on moral values, they would never countenance the circulation of a lie. Nor could they have come from the media, who are conscious of their role in a democracy and deal only in facts.

Through some failure of the system (I guess) news of this survey did not reach the nation's leaders, because between the release of the report to the press on 21st October and the election, no one stood up and addressed the fact in public. Least of all that part of the American body politic that stood to gain from the votes of a hoodwinked public.

Democracy only works well if the voting public is correctly informed, and that can only happen if politicians stick to the truth and the press keep an eagle eye on them to make sure they are not tempted to deviate. It looks as if neither happened around these crucial facts.

Oh - in case you think the whole thing is just another conspiracy by the crazy leftist Commie fringe, the research was funded by Rockefeller Brothers.

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About the author: Eric lives in tropical Queensland and writes books - some naughty, some nice - that can be found through Renaissance eBooks (renebooks.com) He reads widely and when he is not thinking about lunch, worries about the state of the world.

Email: ericge@westnet.com.au

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