"Almost Half of Republicans Indulge the 'Stolen Election' Delusion"

[applegrove]

Almost Half of Republicans Indulge the 'Stolen Election' Delusion

by Conor Friedersdoef at the Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/almost-half-of-republicans-indulge-the-stolen-election-delusion/265949/

"SNIP..............................................


The newest survey from Public Policy Polling doesn't augur well for Republicans: "49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore."

..................................

What about people who thought that Obama stole the election through means other than ACORN? Answering "ACORN stole it for him" seems like the best fit for them among the options given. But even under that more charitable interpretation, nearly half of Republicans think Obama stole the election in some way or other -- this despite the fact that the results are in keeping with the findings of most reputable pollsters, that unlike in 2000 no state is in dispute, and that Obama won with so many electoral votes that you could flip Florida and he'd still be president.


The PPP survey also found that "some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure."

Do all these Republicans really think that ACORN stole the election? Do they really want their state to secede from the union? Given the depth of misinformation spread in some corners of the conservative media, I've no doubt that seemingly lunatic beliefs are genuinely held by some of the respondents. But my guess is that most respondents who gave these answers were less worried about the specific questions than signaling that, in general, they judge the outcome of Election 2012 to be illegitimate, perhaps in ways they themselves haven't articulated.

..............................................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. They are at the denial & anger stages of grief. And the GOP will

keep them there. They don't want their base to hit 'acceptance' stage where people reconnect to the world as it is. Why? They don't want their base to enjoy things like Obamacare. Could be someone might learn something and stop voting against their own economic best interests.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

2. I have finally figured out just what the GOP was up to

when they continually asserted Romney was leading in the polls and was going to win the election. It had nothing to do with unrealistic expectations, they knew he was going to lose. It had everything to do with delegitimizing this president's second term. Look at the outrage out there..

[PDJane]

3. From where I sit, the whole lot look deranged.

The inmates are running the asylum.

[Warpy]

4. Well, it WAS stolen

by all those Democrats that Neil Newhouse and Dean Chambers swore were too disappointed in Obama to turn out and vote!

How dare we!

[slogan057]

5. They All Should Be Looking For Bigfoot

[Logical]

6. Before the election half the DU did too. n-t

[Coyotl]

7. OMG!! "25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union"

Congratulations Fox, half way there to breaking up the USA and stealing all the public land and minerals.

[struggle4progress]

8. tell em it's the damn electro-vapor-vote machines so we need paper ballots