I've delayed writing this particular column for days. My reasons for delaying are ironic. I'd prefer to not believe what the polling shows, and what the polling shows is that Americans believe what they prefer to believe, regardless of evidence. Writing this column is psychically painful, and the column is about people avoiding dealing with anything psychically painful.
I've been hoping some later versions of the polls would contradict the earlier polling, but that hasn't happened, and I think it's unlikely to happen anytime soon. So, to borrow a phrase from CNN's Chris Cuomo, let's get to it.
The problems framed by the polling are fairly simple and straightforward. How should a modern democracy deal with the fact that a large chunk of its electorate is clinically delusional? And does it make any sense to placate, negotiate, and attempt to reach common ground with those citizens who are unable to rationally evaluate evidence and who often fail to even recognize evidence? Is there any real democratic value in failing to disqualify paranoid and irrational individuals from having a voice? In other words, why cater to people who are nuts, bonkers, off the deep end? What is the advantage in allowing inmates to help run the asylum?
The January 11 Quinnipiac University poll reveals that Republicans, by a 73-21 margin, say there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats say there was not by 93-5, and Independents say there was not by 60-36.
Back in the spring, a plurality of polled Republicans said that coronavirus threats were overblown, and I debated in several columns if that was due to people just taking political stands in their poll responses as opposed to reporting what they actually believed. I think that debate can be shelved. A big chunk of the GOP has anchored themselves in the Sea of Delusions. They're not lost due to a political stance. They're failing to process reality because they'd prefer to play dress up.
An Older Poll with a Surprise
Now I'll back up to an older poll, one taken December 1st through December 6th by NPR/PBS. I'm pleased to announce that due to President Trump's absence, my propensity for political incorrectness will once again merit some notice.
The question that interests me is on Page 43 of the NPR poll, "Do you trust that the results of the 2020 election are accurate, or not?" The answer, as has been widely reported in the media, is that just 24% of Republicans say yes. A massive 72% say no, and 4% are unsure. As was the case for "coronavirus is overblown" questions in the spring and summer, less education correlates with non-evidence based answers. Thus, 26% of college grads of all parties say the 2020 election was not accurate, while 39% of non-college grads say the same.
What I found fascinating about the NPR poll, however, was the gender disparity among Republicans. I was very surprised, and part of my surprise results from nobody in mainstream media highlighting it. Here we go.
For Republican men, 33% said the election was accurate, and 64% said it was not. For Republican women, just 15% said the election was accurate and a whopping 81% said it was not. That is a monstrous irrationality gender divide. Huge. I have not heard a mention of it on CNN or MSNBC or in polite company. The fact that Republican women are significantly more nuts than Republican men appears to have been buried on Page 43.
No need to thank me for mentioning it. I aim to do as much politically incorrect wet work as the law allows.
New CNN Poll
Next I'd like to mention a CNN poll from January 9-14 that highlights the continued election denialism of most Republicans. Just 19% of GOP voters in the poll said Biden had actually won the election. Seventy-five percent said that there had been widespread voter fraud. In addition, 50% of Republicans said that there was solid evidence of such fraud.
These polls raise a large number of serious questions. What I'd like to know is if these views are crystallized as a kind of permanent Trump base mythos or if they're amenable to degradation over time. Whatever the answer, the problem-in-the-now is that a majority of the Republican electorate believes what they prefer to believe. The Covid-19 irrationality has lessened a bit over time, but half of Republicans polled December 1-6 still thought the virus was overblown.
The mental acuity criteria for deciding whether action must be taken is whether an individual poses a threat to himself or others. The Covid-19 deniers clearly fall into that category. Election deniers may pose less of a threat overall, but in many ways are just as delusional. The question, and it bears repeating, is whether attempts to include irrational people in political processes serve any useful purpose. In the case of Covid-19, the United States has paid the price for allowing the promulgation of irrational anti-science nonsense. How high a percent of irrationality and paranoia can a population sustain without completely falling prey to self-defeating madness? And how can a country compete economically and scientifically against other nations, and other economic systems, when its back is bowed by the weight of its own delusions?
Bob Dietz
January 23, 2021
