To Mods: Please move to mud pit if that will be more appropriate.
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source for the entire survey
If you had no idea about the details, how would you judge the merit of certain philosophies, mindsets and causes?
I assert that self-coherence is a way to do just that. After all, if you can't recognize and reconcile conflicts in your own belief components, how
can your value system have any credibility?
I came across this poll which I believe was done for the purpose of garnering votes. I'm honestly not sure who is behind it. Several inconsistencies
are apparent. US political parties are pure theater but they allocate political ideology fairly well. Let's begin.
Which of the following would you support as ways to reduce the nation's budget deficit?
27% of self identified Republicans would raise taxes on "wealthy individuals"
15% of Republicans would reduce military spending.
15% of Republicans wouldn't cut Social security or Medicare either.
56% would do "other"
Not sure how "other" stacks up against the budget deficit. I guess we'll never know. I know how military spending and wars impact the budget.
It has been proposed that every time the United States goes to war in the future the government should issue a special "war surtax" on all American
citizens to pay for the war and avoid adding to our nation's debt. How strongly would you favor or oppose such a tax?
About 67% of Reps oppose or strongly oppose this idea. I get it. Conservatives don't believe in taxation. Land of the free etc. Literally free.
Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on terrorism?
Over 70% of Republicans believe terrorists hate America's values and that's why they attack. We smile in selfies. They hate that. We need to be
strong. The other choice was America's foreign policy. Naaa. They hate drive though liquor stores.
The United States currently has the most powerful military in the world. In your opinion, how important is it for the United States to remain the
world's number one military power
A whopping 73% of Republicans think it is "very important". But how will this get paid for?
If the United States wants to maintain its current advantage in military power over rising powers like China it may need to raise taxes to pay for
higher defense budgets. What is the largest tax increase you would support to help keep the United States military the strongest in the world?
52% of Republicans would not support any increase in taxes for one of the most unified and important issues in their world. Odd conflict there. Maybe
they should have a gun raffle.
Do you believe that the following statement is true or not true? "Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded in 2003."
62.9% of Republicans answered true. This is remarkable, given that the US military reported no WMD have been found in the 10+ years of the Iraq war.
That's an odd one but it may shed light on the coherence question. It may be that misinformation is being accepted as truth. That's not helping
credibility.
In summary:
1. Strong military with interventionist policy is critical for the US but I'm not willing to pay for it.
2. Strong allies are critical but they are too lazy/aggressive and should take care of themselves.
3. We are paying very close attention to political affairs and yet still insisting that Iraq had WMD in 2003. For kicks, a strong majority of
Republicans are Birthers. Paying very close attention all right --very aware of the constant barrage of false flag attacks designed to refute a very
secure worldview. It won't work though.
I submit to you the reader, that an alien would have no choice but to classify a large swath of US conservatives as having incoherent and distorted
world views, thus indeterminate core value sets. The search for coherence and merit would lead elsewhere. But where? Possibly to church? 56% of
Republicans believe religion is very important and more than 60% pray at least once per day. Ooops, not so much. More than 50% do not attend church
more than a few times per year. Oh well.
edit on 12-6-2014 by InverseLookingGlass because: note to mods
edit on 12-6-2014 by
InverseLookingGlass because: (no reason given)
edit on 12-6-2014 by InverseLookingGlass because: added link