How do you have an actual election if no one knows what's going on?

[Sorenroy]

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2015/PPP_Release_National_51016.pdf
https://twitter.com/mcbridetd/status/731478769454567425

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(I assume his information was accurate since it was retweeted by @ppppolls)

So here's the deal: first, how can we have an actual election if this many people don't know the basics, second, who is to blame for this nonsense, and, finally, how do we fix this?

[beaver2.0]

The numbers could be wrong, or maybe likely voters have different numbers.

[This account no longer in use.]

Eh. The first two will go away when Obama leaves the presidency. After Garland/whoever gets confirmed, the conspiracy theorists will realize they have nothing to gain from claiming Scalia was murdered repeatedly; remember how Obama supposedly had Breitbart and Clancy killed? As for the third one, that's always been a vocal minority, and I believe that it would be better to simply force public school students to be vaccinated.

[Xing]

First of all, I think those numbers apply specifically to Trump supporters, which makes it even less surprising. Anyway, this is nothing new. Many people in this country are under-educated, and some intensely dislike the idea of "getting educated" since they think higher education is for elitists. Anti-intellectualism is a sad reality in America, and a lot of people have no idea how to be discerning about the information they see in the media and online. Also, some people need to get over the fact that if they're not highly educated, maybe they should listen to people who are. For example, people who are convinced that climate change is a hoax really ought to listen to scientists who have actually done extensive research and are experts on the subject, rather than their own unscientic intuition, which tells them that if climate change were real, it would already be 300 degrees in the winter. Anti-intellectualism makes people think that they can't be wrong, and that anyone who tries to persuade them to change their mind is an elitist.

[Seneca]

Clearly letting the Hoi Polloi have a say was a big mistake. The obvious solution would be to restrict voting to property owners. The founders feared the mob for a reason, y'know.

[SillyAmerican]

Excellent question.

Our education system is a mess, and our young people are the victims. It used to be that civics and social studies were treated as important parts of our training. Today, it's more important to take a stand than it is to be informed. For instance, how many people that are either for or against a woman's right to end her pregnancy have actually read the decision in Roe v. Wade? (Never mind the dissenting opinion; that is definitely too much to ask). We have somehow managed to put more value on choosing a side rather than knowing what it is we're talking about.

I find myself fearing for the health of our Republic. Franklin D. Roosevelt nailed it when he said "Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."

[ProudModerate2]

....  those numbers apply specifically to Trump supporters, which makes it even less surprising.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The same way we're had them for a long time. The public (and more importantly, voters) being ill-informed, ill-educated, and unpracticed in critical thinking has been a feature (not a bug) for a long time.

[Asian Nazi]

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

[IceSpear]

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

LOL. Brutal, but true.

[Meclazine for Israel]

As for the third one, that's always been a vocal minority, and I believe that it would be better to simply force public school students to be vaccinated.

The vaccinations which some parents claim cause 'Autism' are given at 18 months. But research shows no correlation bwtween vaccination rates and the prevelance of the disease.

My theory is that it may accelerate the onset of the disease faster than what would have otherwise occured.

That would explain some parents' observations of which i have listened to personally.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Regarding the first, it's because he has 'Hussein' as a middle name along with the overall 'foreign' sounding name he has, plus the fact his grandfather Onyango Obama was Muslim, even though his father never really practiced the faith.... I mean.... President Obama is a Christian...

[Virginiá]

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

That's not fair. They aren't idio....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/obama-hurricane-katrina_n_3790612.html

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[Asian Nazi]

Clearly letting the Hoi Polloi have a say was a big mistake. The obvious solution would be to restrict voting to property owners. The founders feared the mob for a reason, y'know.

That would make sense if the people that owned property were necessarily smart, which isn't the case. Most just inherited it from their parents, and there were plenty of non-property owners that might have been smart, but never really had a chance to get much education because they had to work.

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

Most of the world are idiots when it comes to politics, unless they actually study the issues. Hell, I spend some time on this, and I'm still basically a idiot.

I mean, have you seen some of the morons that are winning elections around the world?

Yeah not saying America is unique by any means.  Humans are just dumb.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Clearly letting the Hoi Polloi have a say was a big mistake. The obvious solution would be to restrict voting to property owners. The founders feared the mob for a reason, y'know.

That would make sense if the people that owned property were necessarily smart, which isn't the case. Most just inherited it from their parents, and there were plenty of non-property owners that might have been smart, but never really had a chance to get much education because they had to work.

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

Most of the world are idiots when it comes to politics, unless they actually study the issues. Hell, I spend some time on this, and I'm still basically a idiot.

I mean, have you seen some of the morons that are winning elections around the world?

Yeah not saying America is unique by any means.  Humans are just dumb.

I think people were more well informed when they read newspapers and the like, modern media is largely trash and reality TV crap, even online.

I could be wrong, I was born after newspapers were starting to die out.

But even before that, people would just support what ever they were taught to believe, instead of actually doing the research themselves...

[ProudModerate2]

Clearly letting the Hoi Polloi have a say was a big mistake. The obvious solution would be to restrict voting to property owners. The founders feared the mob for a reason, y'know.

That would make sense if the people that owned property were necessarily smart, which isn't the case. Most just inherited it from their parents, and there were plenty of non-property owners that might have been smart, but never really had a chance to get much education because they had to work.

The American people are idiots.  It's been the case since forever.  It's only a recent phenomenon that we've deluded ourselves into thinking they aren't.

Most of the world are idiots when it comes to politics, unless they actually study the issues. Hell, I spend some time on this, and I'm still basically a idiot.

I mean, have you seen some of the morons that are winning elections around the world?

Yeah not saying America is unique by any means.  Humans are just dumb.

I think people were more well informed when they read newspapers and the like, modern media is largely trash and reality TV crap, even online.

I could be wrong, I was born after newspapers were starting to die out.

But even before that, people would just support what ever they were taught to believe, instead of actually doing the research themselves...

Just about everything, everyone here is saying is true.
Luckily because information is more easily available (internet, mobile phones, etc), the world will hopefully and slowly change for the better. (We can only pray and hope, otherwise mankind on Earth is doomed.)

[Sorenroy]

So I decided to take a look back over the ideology spectrum and find the worse group for each question:

Q: Cruz's Father Involved in JFK Assassination Yes/No     Worst is "Very Liberal" at 15-64 (+49 No)
Q: Scalia Died Naturally / Was Murdered                        Worst is "Very Conservative" at 43-20 (+23 Died Naturally)
Q: Vaccines Cause Autism Yes/No                                  Worst is "Very Liberal" at 28-43 (+15 No)
Q: Obama Born in US Yes/No                                        Worst is "Very Conservative" at 24-61 (+37 No)
Q: Obama Christian or Muslim                                       Worst is "Very Conservative" at 10-67 (+57 Muslim)

I have to say that the worse one here, for me at least, is that more then one out of four people who identify as "Very Liberal" think that vaccines cause autism and if you include undecideds, more then one half of those who identify as "Very Liberal" aren't sure.

Areas where "not sure" or the wrong answer was more frequent then the right one (right-wrong, net wrongness):

Q: Scalia Died Naturally / Was Murdered
        Very Conservative (57-43, 14), Somewhat Conservative (54-46, 8)

Q: Vaccines Cause Autism Yes/No
        Very Liberal (57-43, 14), Very Conservative (56-44, 12), Somewhat Conservative (51-49, 2)

Q: Obama Born in US Yes/No
        Very Conservative (76-24, 52), Somewhat Conservative (62-38, 24)

Q: Obama Christian or Muslim
        Very Conservative (90-10, 80), Somewhat Conservative (77-23, 54), Moderate (58-42, 16), Base (56-44, 12)

"Base" here is the entire sample, which means that the majority of all people aren't sure about Obama's faith or believe that Obama is a Muslim.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Reminder that this is a significant phenomenon in both parties where roughly half the contingent is lunatics railing against 'super evil person' and half have an actual ideology [since there is extraordinary Republican bashing in this thread though obviously their contingent is slightly larger]