For years, the GOP has been pandering to extremists. The health care debate and the Obama presidency have brought out the most paranoid, conspiracy theory-driven fringe members of that extremist base including racists, anti-government activists and too many otherwise-normal Americans who have had their economic anxieties and fear of change exploited for the Right Wing's cynical politics.
John Avalon at the The Daily Beast reports that a new Harris poll shows the true fruit of the GOP's inciting fear and bigotry amongst its base:
On the heels of health care, a new Harris poll reveals Republican attitudes about Obama: Two-thirds think he's a socialist, 57 percent a Muslim—and 24 percent say "he may be the Antichrist."
To anyone who thinks the end of the health-care vote means a return to civility, wake up.
Obama Derangement Syndrome—pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism—has infected the Republican Party. Here's new data to prove it:
- 67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.
The belief that Obama is a “domestic enemy” is widely held—a sign of trouble yet to come.
- 57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim
- 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"
- 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"
- Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."