# Underestimating the number of stupid assholes in America **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 8, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057 "2012-09-08T01:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/61 "2012-09-10T18:11:07Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I know folks who were single issue voters (on abortion) 20 years ago who have adopted the entire conservative agenda. These are folks that didn’t really have a strong opiniobn on the size of government, supply side economics, gay rights, women’s rights, the minimum wage, gun control, taxes, etc. but now they line up consistently on the conservative side of all these issues. > Pro-life was the gateway drug for their current broad conservative outlook. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true, since the Democrats are not very welcoming of pro-lifers on the national level even though there are local Democrats who are pro-life and a grass roots movement in the party to ask for recognition of pro-lifers in the party ( [http://www.democratsforlife.org](http://www.democratsforlife.org) ). When one side is telling you that your view is not welcome in the party, it shouldn’t be surprising that people will react by identify with the other party. In fact, another aspect of this issue may be that because conservative people are less likely to embrace birth control and/or abortion, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if they tend to have more children. Children tend to take after their parents’ beliefs (though it’s not 100% of course) which may very well help continue to keep the conservative view alive in future generations. From my experience, the majority of people who identify as childfree (people who never intend to have kids) are liberals. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/62 "2012-09-10T18:11:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Here is wisdom, and no great mystery: People of **every** political (and religious) viewpoint tend to overestimate its popularity, and underestimate that of opposing viewpoints. It comes of (1) hanging out mostly with like-minded people, and coming to think of them as the normal people; and (2) knowing in your heart that your own world-view is such plain common sense that only a nutcase fringe could be seriously diametrically opposed to it. And both sides tend to overestimate the interest that the general population has in politics. Politics just isn’t very important to most people. Look at the dismal voter turnout even during presidential elections. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/63 "2012-09-10T18:15:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Be patient. Give it time. [61% of “Staunch Conservatives” are age 50 or older,](http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/typology-group-profiles/) and their children and grandchildren will not replenish their ranks – it’s a generational-culture thing. Remember the “Silent Majority” Nixon spoke of and depended on? Well, he was right about that, at the time; but, at least they’re not a majority any more, and never will be again. Meh. In most states conservatives outnumber liberals roughly 2 to 1, with people self-identifying as conservative number around 40% while people self-identifying as liberal number around 20%. And people tend to become more conservative as they grow older. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/64 "2012-09-10T18:24:45Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > As gamerunknown said, home schooling is much more common amongst evangelical christian and mormon families than “liberal atheist” ones, mostly because they don’t want to learn “the gay” and “evolution is real” and other nonsense. I would like a cite. The one I know is in a group of home schoolers who think their school district is too conservative. This is in Orange County, California. As far as I know they are all liberals, and many are atheists. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/65 "2012-09-10T18:36:14Z")
> [@Noone\_Special](#): > > As I never get tired of saying: Half the population is dumber than average. You’re confusing median with average. Dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/66 "2012-09-10T18:51:54Z")
LavenderViolet: > [@](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true, since the Democrats are not very welcoming of pro-lifers on the national level even though there are local Democrats who are pro-life and a grass roots movement in the party to ask for recognition of pro-lifers in the party ( [http://www.democratsforlife.org](http://www.democratsforlife.org) ). When one side is telling you that your view is not welcome in the party, it shouldn’t be surprising that people will react by identify with the other party. > In fact, another aspect of this issue may be that because conservative people are less likely to embrace birth control and/or abortion, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if they tend to have more children. This is absolutely true, and I’ll point out the one MAJOR population group that this has affected: Catholics. The Catholic church is deeply liberal in almost every single way that the political spectrum cared about at the time of Roe v Wade (I’m excluding gay rights here, because the split i’m referring to happened before gay rights was a hot political issue), and liberal politicians walked arm-in-arm with Catholics to support social welfare laws, to support environmental laws, to protest the Vietnam War - but once the Democrats decided that abortion rights were to be a major factor in their politics going forward, they lost the Catholic church as an ally. And Catholics do tend to have quite a lot of children. (Bart Simpson, in church: “I’m hungry, can’t we become Catholic so we can at least eat communion wafers?” Marge: “No way, three kids is enough!”) ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/67 "2012-09-10T18:52:31Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > You’re confusing median with average. Dumbass. Not on a Normal (Gaussian) distribution, I ain’t 😛 🙂 Also, median, mean (what you [and I, colloquially] are calling “average”), and mode are all technically “average”-s. So there. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/68 "2012-09-10T18:58:39Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Meh. In most states conservatives outnumber liberals roughly 2 to 1, with people self-identifying as conservative number around 40% while people self-identifying as liberal number around 20%. Not if you use a [finer instrument,](http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2009/03/11/5775/state-of-american-political-ideology-2009/) with five choices instead of three. > [@](#): > > For years, traditional public opinion polling has broken down ideology into three distinct groupings: liberal, moderate, and conservative. Based on this categorization, there has been remarkable stability in ideological orientation, with roughly one-fifth of Americans identifying themselves as “liberal” and about four in 10 classifying themselves as “moderate” or ”conservative,” respectively, according to Gallup polling from 1992 to 2008. > > In this study, however, the electorate is broken down using a more expansive five-point scale of political ideology that reflects the variety of approaches people ascribe to today. Employing this more calibrated measure, 34 percent of the country identifies as “conservative,” 29 percent as “moderate,” 15 percent as “liberal,” 16 percent as “progressive,” and 2 percent as “libertarian.” After moderates are asked which approach they lean toward, the overall ideological breakdown of the country divides into fairly neat left and right groupings, with 47 percent of Americans identifying as progressive or liberal and 48 percent as conservative or libertarian. The rest are unsure or scattered among moderate and other approaches. > > Combining this five-point scale of political ideology with responses to the 40 specific ideological statements, the progressive leanings of the country become readily apparent. On the domestic front, after years of supply-side tax cuts, support for corporations (especially extractive oil and mining companies), and deregulation of the economy, large percentages of Americans increasingly favor progressive ideas centered on: sustainable lifestyles and green energy; public investment in education, infrastructure, and science; financial support for the poor, elderly, and sick; regulation of business to protect workers and consumers; and guaranteed affordable health coverage for every American. On the international front, the legacy of the Bush years has yielded to an American public far more interested in restoring the country’s image abroad, fighting climate change, and pursuing security through diplomacy, alliances, and international institutions than in the continued pursuit of national objectives through the sole projection of military might. > > Approximately two-thirds of Americans—reaching to 70 percent to 80 percent on some measures—agree with progressive ideas in each of these domestic and global areas (see Table 1). Important cleavages emerge in the data, however, between non-college-educated Americans and college-educated elites. Non-college Americans are more populist and progressive than elites on some measures of government and economics and much more conservative on cultural and national security measures. > > The rise of progressivism in America is reflected more starkly in direct ratings of various ideological approaches. Today, more than two-thirds of Americans rate a “progressive” approach to politics favorably, a 25-point increase in favorability over the last five years, with gains coming primarily from those who were previously unaware of the term. “Progressive” now equals ”conservative” in terms of overall public favorability (67 percent, respectively). See also the [Pew Political Typology.](http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/beyond-red-vs-blue-the-political-typology/) Where any given one of the nine typology groupings falls on the left-right spectrum is a debatable point, but the typology at least tells us how many are at what points relative to each other. And partisan alignment is clearer: The “Mostly Democratic” groupings make up 37% of the general public, 40% of registered voters; the “Mostly Republican” groupings make up 20% of the general public, 25% of registered voters; and the three"Mostly Independent" groupings are all over the place, even WRT each other. > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > And people tend to become more conservative as they grow older. [Quite the reverse, actually.](http://news.discovery.com/human/voter-conservative-aging-liberal-120119.html) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/69 "2012-09-10T19:07:30Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > And both sides tend to overestimate the interest that the general population has in politics. Politics just isn’t very important to most people. Look at the dismal voter turnout even during presidential elections. I’m sure politics was not important to most people in 1775 or 1861; that doesn’t matter; politics does matter, and it will never stop mattering or go away. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/70 "2012-09-10T19:21:13Z")
> [@Noone\_Special](#): > > Not on a Normal (Gaussian) distribution, I ain’t 😛 🙂 > > Also, median, mean (what you [and I, colloquially] are calling “average”), and mode are all technically “average”-s. > > So there. Meh. I’d have to say you’re at least guilty of equivocation here. In everday conversation, most people would take the word “average” to mean “typical,” e.g. a typical blue collar worker drinks beer and watches sports, a typical evangelical attends church regularly, a typical vegetarian consumes very little or no meat etc. Obviously, in that sense, average simply means majority in a broad sense. You seem to be using the word in its everyday non-mathematical sense as part of a mathematical proposition. However, I do owe you an apology for calling you a dumbass. Anyone who knows what Gaussian means has got have an IQ at least in the low normal range. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/71 "2012-09-10T19:24:06Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > This is a country that RE-elected GWB! Yup, and California re-elected Ahnold. That’s when I gave up on Americans. Too many are just too stupid. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/72 "2012-09-10T19:59:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’m sure politics was not important to most people in 1775 or 1861; that doesn’t matter; politics does matter, and it will never stop mattering or go away. Perhaps. Even so, one should be very wary of anyone who presumes to speak “for the people” and derives a moral claim to political power from that presumption. (Yes, even right wingers!) More often than not, the people really just don’t give much of a damn. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/73 "2012-09-10T20:09:57Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Meh. I’d have to say you’re at least guilty of equivocation here. In everday conversation, most people would take the word “average” to mean “typical,” e.g. a typical blue collar worker drinks beer and watches sports, a typical evangelical attends church regularly, a typical vegetarian consumes very little or no meat etc. Obviously, in that sense, average simply means majority in a broad sense. You seem to be using the word in its everyday non-mathematical sense as part of a mathematical proposition. Yeah, that’s the “Mode.” I.e., the value with the greatest number of appearences in a randomly selected population. Of course, the Gaussian Distribution, being continuous and all, doesn’t have a proper Mode, but if we call the point of greatest probability density the “Mode” of a continuous distribution, well, it’s still the same point as the mean and the median, on the Gaussian 😛 So your contention that “The average Joe” is dumber than the mean is incorrect (unless you’re going to claim that IQ in humans doesn’t follow a Normal distibution, or at least closely approximate one.) So, once again, there 😛 > [@](#): > > However, I do owe you an apology for calling you a dumbass. Anyone who knows what Gaussian means has got have an IQ at least in the low normal range. 😉 I’m still not \*quite \*sure if you’re having a good-natured pissing contest here, or are really in it for the argument. But I’ll assume the former. 🙂 So I think I can say that given the first part of my post, you can go and piss up a rope… 😛 😃 (And anyway, “half the population is dumber than average” is just _ **sooooo** _ much catchier than “half the population is dumber than the mean.”) ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/74 "2012-09-10T20:17:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not if you use a [finer instrument,](http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2009/03/11/5775/state-of-american-political-ideology-2009/) with five choices instead of three. > > See also the [Pew Political Typology.](http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/beyond-red-vs-blue-the-political-typology/) Where any given one of the nine typology groupings falls on the left-right spectrum is a debatable point, but the typology at least tells us how many are at what points relative to each other. And partisan alignment is clearer: The “Mostly Democratic” groupings make up 37% of the general public, 40% of registered voters; the “Mostly Republican” groupings make up 20% of the general public, 25% of registered voters; and the three"Mostly Independent" groupings are all over the place, even WRT each other. > > And American Progress? You really think you’re going to get an objective, scientific analysis from the likes of them? > > [Quite the reverse, actually.](http://news.discovery.com/human/voter-conservative-aging-liberal-120119.html) Meh. I was referring to a Gallup poll in which people self-identified as conservative, liberal and independent. How sociologists and political scientists categorize them is a different matter, and in any case sociology and political science are, to phrase it diplomatically, inexact sciences. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/75 "2012-09-10T20:36:10Z")
😃 > [@Noone\_Special](#): > > So, once again, there 😛 > > I’m still not \*quite \*sure if you’re having a good-natured pissing contest here, or are really in it for the argument. > > But I’ll assume the former. 🙂 So I think I can say that given the first part of my post, you can go and piss up a rope… 😛 Well, when I started out I was really in it for the argument, but then I learned my dumbass boss just got demoted, and my mood suddenly got a whole lot better. 😃 > [@Noone\_Special](#): > > (And anyway, “half the population is dumber than average” is just _ **sooooo** _ much catchier than “half the population is dumber than the mean.”) I was going to go for a smartass remark here, but it occurs to me that it would be interesting to know how much difference there may be in the IQs and education of frequent voters and those of non-voters and infrequent voters. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/76 "2012-09-10T20:45:06Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I know folks who were single issue voters (on abortion) 20 years ago who have adopted the entire conservative agenda. These are folks that didn’t really have a strong opiniobn on the size of government, supply side economics, gay rights, women’s rights, the minimum wage, gun control, taxes, etc. but now they line up consistently on the conservative side of all these issues. > > Pro-life was the gateway drug for their current broad conservative outlook. Yeah, preaching a black-and-white dualism and calling one side baby killers gets results. And it’s been getting worse, and it’s going to get even worse, not better. Ever hear of the “Roe Effect”? Because the Right believe in it, and expect unassailable majorities out of it. > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > most people would take the word “average” to mean “typical,” That’s _mode._ I would take “average” to mean _mean,_ since we already have a word for “typical.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/77 "2012-09-10T21:14:27Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Meh. I was referring to a Gallup poll in which people self-identified as conservative, liberal and independent. Yes . . . I think I know the one you mean . . . [The article I quoted](http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2009/03/11/5775/state-of-american-political-ideology-2009/) was referring to that earlier Gallup poll too, in contrast to the poll under discussion, which also asked people to self-identify. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/78 "2012-09-10T21:16:37Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Perhaps. Even so, one should be very wary of anyone who presumes to speak “for the people” and derives a moral claim to political power from that presumption. (Yes, even right wingers!) More often than not, the people really just don’t give much of a damn. So? From what **does** a moral claim to political power derive? ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/79 "2012-09-10T21:27:22Z")
Only got through post #56, so forgive if I’m repeating something between there and the end … > [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > It’s disheartening enough to see it on the Dope, but what about on Facebook, where you’re forced to admit to yourself that these people are actual friends of yours, and members of your family?? That’s what gets to me. I can’t put half my friends and family on ignore. You shouldn’t ignore them, you should keep pounding them, because the future of our country is at stake and this election, with the probable appointment of 2 Supreme Court Justices, is too damn important not to. I just had the heartbreaking experience of learning that a long-time, close, dear, previously-respected friend is a fucking BIRTHER who thinks Barack Obama cannot be trusted because not only hasn’t he provided the _kind_ of birth certificate that you or I would need in order to get a passport (good G-d), but because Michelle Obama has 22 assistants and Laura Bush only had 1 and, by the way, why isn’t she allowed to practice law anymore, huh? HUH? All while claiming she DOES look things up and research facts. ::weeps:: I will never, ever be able to look at her the same again. I don’t even know if I could be in her company without wanting to punch her in the face for being such a fucking idiot. But I’ll be damned if I put her on ignore and stop blasting my news feed with the hard truths even if she’s so bloody insanely fucking stupid that she continues not to believe them. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > 1. He is a traitor because he makes pro-life Cathiolic voters feel like they have to choose abortion ( we have NO IDEA what the heck she meant) I blame Rush Limbaugh for this. He is too wealthy and too powerful to have a microphone that allows him to spew hateful, racist, lying bullshit to gullible people without some kind of consequence. While I recognize and respect his First Amendment right to speech, we require advertisers BY LAW to be TRUTHFUL in how they use the public airways to “speak,” and that filthy prick should be bound by the same damn laws. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You’re all wrong - the enemy are the lobbyists. The political party in power makes no difference. While corporate lobbyists have no business in our government, you’re dead wrong that it makes no difference which political party is in power. In the 2000s: [ul] [li]Republicans gave us a war of aggression against a country that wasn’t a threat, UNFUNDED no less.[/li][li]Republicans gave us not 1, but 2 unfunded tax gifts to millionaires and billionaires, robbing the nation of desperately needed resources and sending our debt skyrocketing.[/li][li]Republicans gave us an unfunded gift to Big Pharma and a fat lip to seniors with Medicare Part D (and don’t even get me started on HOW they got that bill passed by threatening to fire the Medicare Actuary, placing GUARDS at the door of the House so Representatives couldn’t leave, threatening their members if they didn’t vote the way they wanted, and stopping the vote when it was clear it was about to FAIL, then forcing people to stay until 3 o’fucking clock in the morning when they finally browbeat enough people to cave to their bullying).[/li][li]Republicans gave us the Patriot Act.[/li][li]Republicans gave us Administration-authorized TORTURE.[/li][li]Republicans gave us the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, 10 percent unemployment at its peak, an unprecedented number of foreclosures, an unprecedented number of families on assistance from everything from medical care to FOOD.[/li][/ul] Since 2008, and especially since they regained control of the House in 2010: [ul] [li]Republicans gave us an unprecedented number of filibusters in the Senate, effectively changing the rules from needing a simple majority for a bill to win approval, to needing a super-majority.[/li][li]Republicans have given us 83 post offices with shiny new names![/li][li]Republicans gave us trumped up lies about ACORN, stripped them of their funding and forced their closure. Again, because of a LIE.[/li][li]Republicans have given us a big fat waste of our tax dollars spending their time voting 32 times to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[/li][li]Republicans played chicken with the Full Faith and Credit of the United States of America and _lost_, which cost us our pristine AAA credit rating for the first time in HISTORY.[/li][/ul] I could go on but it’s pissing me off too bad. On the other hand, without posting the list I previously have that nears 100 things, I’ll be a bit more brief and remind you that in just the first 2 years of Barack Obama’s presidency alone: [ul] [li]Democrats passed the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Wounded Warrior Bill, improving military health care and providing a 3.5% pay raise to our troops.[/li][li]Democrats passed a bill to better regulate the student loan industry.[/li][li]Democrats passed Homeland Security funding to address border and transit vulnerabilities.[/li][li]Democrats passed legislation to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Stimulus bill that included $288,000,000 in tax cuts, making it one of the largest tax cuts in history.[/li][li]Democrats passed the largest land conservation law in nearly two decades.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provided coverage to 4 million previously uninsured children.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive credit card practices.[/li][li]Democrats passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act[/li][li]Democrats passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, ending government bailouts of the financial sector.[/li][/ul] > [@rogerbox](#): > > As gamerunknown said, home schooling is much more common amongst evangelical christian and mormon families than “liberal atheist” ones, mostly because they don’t want to learn “the gay” and “evolution is real” and other nonsense. And if they don’t feel like home schoolin’ themselves, they’ll just pass laws like the just did in Missouri, that say, “If I can’t make you shove my religion down the throats of everyone else’s kids in public school, then you damn well can’t shove science down the throat of MY kid, either,” which allow any kid to OPT OUT of any class they claim “violates their religious beliefs.” They _want_ their kids to be ignorant idiot retards. > [@Scotty Mo](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get it either. I have a friend who is a teacher and is going to vote republican. His main reasons seems to be that he is against “Obamacare”, that big business and corporations are providing all the jobs, and Abortion. He just thinks that people should go find a job with health insurance if they want one and that all abortion should be illegal (unless it was a kid who got raped). Again, he’s a teacher and a Christian and he’s like my best friend. > > Im at the point where I’m just saying “you’re being stupid.” and dropping it all together because it’s like a wall of impenetrable unreasonableness. What could I possibly say to him to knock some sense into him? Send him to the [Nuns on the Bus website](http://www.networklobby.org/nuns-bus-trip). [‘Nun from the bus’ calls GOP budget ‘immoral’](http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/54844965-80/budget-catholic-campbell-ryan.html.csp) Sister Simone Campbell, who led the “Nuns on the Bus” tour for social justice this summer, called the GOP budget plan “immoral” in a spirited speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. “Paul Ryan claims this budget reflects the principles of our shared faith,” Campbell said, as she took direct aim at Mitt Romney’s running mate, who has often cited his Catholic faith as the underpinning of his fiscal policies. “But the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the Ryan budget failed a basic moral test, because it would harm families living in poverty.” [Nun’s surprising comment at DNC: ‘We agree with our bishops’ ](http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-dnc-nun-bishops-20120906,0,1004998.story) One member organization of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is a group called Network. [Sister] Campbell is its executive director. Network endorsed the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping healthcare law critics label “Obamacare.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the law. **Campbell touted the healthcare law** while telling the story of a woman she met in Ohio during the bus tour. “In Cincinnati, I met Jini, who had just come from her sister’s memorial service,” Campbell said. “When Jini’s sister Margaret lost her job, she lost her health insurance. She developed cancer and had no access to diagnosis or treatment. She died unnecessarily. That is tragic. And it is wrong.” Continuing her anecdote about Margaret, she said: “The Affordable Care Act will cover people like Margaret. We all share responsibility to ensure that this vital healthcare reform law is properly implemented and that all governors expand Medicaid coverage so no more Margarets die from lack of care. **This is part of my pro-life stance and the right thing to do.”** ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057/80 "2012-09-10T21:27:43Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Meh. In most states conservatives outnumber liberals roughly 2 to 1, with people self-identifying as conservative number around 40% while people self-identifying as liberal number around 20%. And people tend to become more conservative as they grow older. People self-identify as conservative more than liberal because conservatives are better marketers than liberals. Talk radio is filled with hate speech where “liberal” is shorthand for “demon spawn of satan”, but when you poll people how they feel about actual ISSUES they are generally left of the republican party platform. I have a cite but I can’t find it right now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underestimating-the-number-of-stupid-assholes-in-america/634057.md?page=5)