Politics: Where we struggle to kneel in the muck.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

It turns out that Bush supporters, in the aggregate, are spectacularly misinformed:

• – 75% believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.
  
  – 74% believe Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade.
  
  – 72% believe Iraq had WMD or a program to develop them.
  
  – 72% believe Bush supports the treaty banning landmines.
  
  – 69% believe Bush supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
  
  – 61% believe if Bush knew there were no WMD he would not have gone to war.
  
  – 60% believe most experts believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.
  
  – 58% believe the Duelfer report concluded that Iraq had either WMD or a major program to develop them.
  
  – 57% believe that the majority of people in the world would prefer to see Bush reelected.
  
  – 56% believe most experts think Iraq had WMD.
  
  – 55% believe the 9/11 report concluded Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.
  
  – 51% believe Bush supports the Kyoto treaty.

These numbers are drawn from a report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes. From the report:

• It is normal during elections for supporters of presidential candidates to have fundamental disagreements about values (such as the proper role of the government) or strategies (such as how best to defend US interests). As we have seen, the current election is unique in that Bush supporters and Kerry supporters have profoundly different perceptions of reality....
  
  So why do Bush supporters show such a resistance to accepting dissonant information? While it is normal for people to show some resistance, the magnitude of the denial goes beyond the ordinary. Bush supporters have succeeded in suppressing awareness of the findings of a whole series of high- profile reports about prewar Iraq that have been blazoned across the headlines of newspapers and prompted extensive, high-profile and agonizing reflection. The fact that a large portion of Americans say they are unaware that the original reasons that the US took military action--and for which Americans continue to die on a daily basis--are not turning out to be valid, are probably not due to a simple failure to pay attention to the news.