Entry 75, on 2004-10-28 at 14:50:53 (Rating 1, News)
There was an interesting interview on National Radio this morning with an American researcher from the University of Maryland who described the results of research on the beliefs of supporters of the political parties in the USA.
The research found that Bush supporters believed things which were clearly untrue, and accepted as untrue. He speculated that this was a form of "cognitive dissonance" where the people involved had formed a bond with Bush because of the trauma of 9/11 and now refused to believe he had faults, no matter how obvious these were.
For example, the majority of supporters of both parties thought that the USA shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq if it did not have WMD (weapons of mass destruction) or was not providing support to al Qaeda. But 72% of Bush supporters either thought Iraq had, or were developing, WMD, even though this is totally untrue.
Both, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the heads of the Iraq survey group David Kay and Charles Duelfer (chosen by the president), concluded there was no WMD in Iraq before the war. Bush supporters appear to continue believing something which has been shown to be untrue just to avoid conflict with their support for Bush. Only 26% of Kerry supporters believed the WMD existed.
Other irrational beliefs were also held. For example, 63% of Bush supporters believed that Iraq was involved with the 9/11 attack even though this is accepted as being untrue. A majority (57%) also believed the world wanted to see Bush re-elected, even though a survey showed overwhelming support for Kerry.
While I shouldn't be surprised at totally irrational behavior by people, it is rather alarming that Bush might be voted back into power by supporters who either have no knowledge of what's going on in the world; or, even worse, know but refuse to accept the truth. Some times the so-called democratic process really worries me!
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