Them crazy Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case it wasn't clear enough just how crazy (and how utterly divorced from reality) Republicans are:

A majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world," according to a survey released on Monday.

That figure, buried at the very end of a newly released Newsweek public opinion poll, reflects the extent to which a shocking bit of smear and misinformation has managed to become nearly commonplace within the GOP tent.

(Read the full poll results here.)

A full 14 percent of Republicans said that it was "definitely true" that Obama sympathized with the fundamentalists and wanted to impose Islamic law across the globe. An additional 38 percent said that it was probably true -- bringing the total percentage of believers to 52 percent. Only 33 percent of Republicans said that the "allegation" (as Newsweek put it) was "probably not true." Seven percent said it was "definitely not true." The rest (eight percent) either didn't know the answer or didn't read the question. 

And, as you might imagine, there's more:

Fifty-nine percent of Republicans, for instance, said they believed the president favored "the interests of Muslims over other groups of Americans," while only 34 percent of said he had been "generally even handed" in his approach.

Yes, the right-wing propaganda is working well, the lies spewed by the Republican smear machine, but the willful ignorance of Republicans is unfathomably enormous -- and, as this poll shows, simply appalling.

You can present them with all the evidence you have, undeniable proof that they're wrong, but there's just no reasoning with them, so much do they want nothing to do with the truth.