Republicans Consistently More Knowlegeable About Current Events

Shocker.

 

Uh yeah, as for the Glen Beck question, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dems answered with a lot of different and rude answers...but that 'Party with House majority' now that's funny.

 

Lets go question by question...

"Glenn Beck is a ..." -- Conservative media issue!
"Cap and trade deal with..." -- Something that pisses off conservatives!
"New Supreme Court Justice" -- Conservative hot button!
"Party with House Majority" -- Conservative hot button!
"Unemployment rate" -- Economic issue!
"Federal Reserve" -- Economic issue!
"Dow currently at" -- Economic issue!
"Chair of senate finance" -- Non-partisan issue (notice the narrowing difference)
"Iran/Isreal" -- Non-partisan issue (notice the narrowing difference)
"U.S. Military in Afghanistan" -- Non-partisan issue (notice the narrowing difference)
"Public option" -- Non-partisan issue (notice the narrowing difference)
"U.S. Health spending vs. Europe" -- Liberal issue! (with liberals being more knowledgeable, SHOCKER!)


Thanks, Pew, for proving to us that conservatives care more about economic issues, watch more Fox News than liberals, and pay more attention to legislative issues that piss them off!

 

Hmmm...a link with no discussion or point to be made. Basso, is that you?

"Knowledgable" is a vague term. I'm "knowledgable" about hockey, in that I know it's a sport played on ice with a puck. That doesn't mean I know the rules of the game, how to play, who the players are, or even what channel the games come on.

So the Republicans polled know that "cap and trade" has to do with "energy and the environment". That doesn't mean they know details or that they understand the true definition of the term. Much like the Republican strategy of saying that people in favor of public option really don't know what it means, I'll go ahead and say that Republican's who say they know about "cap and trade", don't really know what it means. Or that they don't know what Judge Sotomayor's opinions really are. Or what the Federal Reserve actually does. Etc., etc.

 

howbout spelling?

 

All of these numbers are embarrassingly low. It says more about how ignorant Americans are in general than about how much better informed Republicans are.

An old friend (and paleo-conservative political science grad student for full disclaimer) once told me a statistic that people with an undergraduate degree were more likely to be conservative than those without one, while people with graduate degrees were more likely to shift left.

I thought about that when I looked at these numbers.

 

Why on Earth would it be considered important to know who Glenn Beck is?

As for the actual issues, I agree with BetterThanI, most of these people who "were aware" probably still didn't know anything but buzzwords.

 

Since when do liberals care less about economic issues?

 

I'm shocked by this to be honest. I rarely meet Republicans who are informed. The few that are informed tend to be insane or misanthropes.

 

I've never met someone and thought "hey, this dude is a misanthrope."

 

Since always.

Kind of like how conservatives don't care as much about human rights, social issues (non-religious ones), etc.

Yeah, I'm generalizing, but its totally true.

Economics are thought of as the conservative playground, social issues are thought of as the liberal playground.

 

Hahahahahaha.



You guys really do make me laugh. I am not just saying that either.

 

I don't agree with that. Business, yes. Conservatives care more about the DOW, Wall Street, investing, etc. But overall economic policy, no.

 

I like to see the responses for:

Obama is of (_) birth.
The (_) admin socialized the banking system through tarp.
Teabagging is (_)


Anyways, I'm don't know how this study affects me personally. De public r stupid. I m smrt.

 

It's evident you've never been to Mississippi.

 

someone who actually thinks that any of these subjective studies reflects reality needs their brain checked

 

Not surprising results at all.

Republicans are more politically active then Dems across groups. In particular, the poor in Dems tend to be urban less connected with politics.

I think that's what skews the results. At the top of both parties, the high end, I think the knowledge level is on par.

 

Interesting results, but I'd like to know more about the polling, how many people of each "party" were interviewed, how these people were located and how they were identified.

Not to toss out the results, but the "liberals" I know would have aced that quiz. That's just anecdotal in an over-educated urban environmental though.

It's also hard to square these results with the other results showing Fox News viewers failing current events / political fact quizzes by the widest margins versus other news viewers.

I will say if weslinder and Refman are considered conservatives, they would score very well on quizzes like this.

Finally, the Glenn Beck question is just completely bizarre. Why is that in such a poll?

 

not surprised really