You’ll believe what they tell you to believe

Interesting bit over at Washington Monthly about recent dramatic shifts in Republican positions — and how they likely came about:

A few years ago, Republican voters, by and large, believed what the mainstream believed when it came to climate science. Then their party, its candidates, and its media outlets told these voters to stop believing the facts — and rank-and-file Republicans did as they were told. In effect, partisans on the right outsourced their evaluation of evidence to their party, and Republicans decided climate science is no longer worthy of support.

This happens more than it should. If I had to guess, if you asked regular ol’ Republican voters several years ago whether the United States should engage in torture, they probably would have said no. But then their party told them to change their mind, and they did. If you asked these GOP voters whether a health care mandate, in line with Republican proposals, was a reasonable policy, they probably would have said yes. But then their party told them to change their mind, and they did.

3 thoughts on “You’ll believe what they tell you to believe

  1. I never believed in that bullshit. The article you quote is funny because it does not mention anything about the shit that has gone down between four years ago and today. Just some left wing crap about how the righties do as they are told. Which really is just partisan silly speak as you lefties fall in line pretty quickly with the party talking points. Hell you were posting talking points on here about how magnificent the US economy really is just before the GOP gutted the house….

  2. The worst part of this is that these demoralized TSA agents won’t really be doing their jobs if they don’t go for the full grope, thereby obviating what little utility they had as terrorism deterrent.

  3. You’re missing the point, Edgar.

    The story is about poll data, not speculation.

    It’s about the shifting responses of the GOP at large, as measured by poll, over a period of time when it was politically expedient for the GOP leadership to suggest that, say, the health care plan they’d offered a while back was now somehow socialist (for example).