RFK Jr: 80% of Republicans are just Dems who don't know what's going on.

[Applan]

Quote of the week from RFK Jr's Brad Blog interview "80% of Republicans are just Democrats who don't know what's going on."

Here's more:
You know I've known this for many years, because of my anecdotal experience. I give about 40 speeches a year, in red states to Republican audiences, and I get the same enthusiastic responses from those audiences as I get from Liberal college audiences. The only difference is, is that the Republicans often say to me, "How come we've never heard this before?" I made the conclusion many years ago that there's not a huge values difference between Red State Republicans and Blue State Democrats. The distinction is really informational. 80% of Republicans are just Democrats who don't know what's going on. And my anecdotal conclusion was confirmed by a survey done immediately after the 2004 election called the PIPA report, which tested Bush supporters and Kerry supporters based upon their knowledge of current events. It found that among Bush supporters, they were widespread in its interpretations, or there were factual errors in the way that they viewed Bush's major public policy initiatives.

For example, 75% of the Republican respondents believed that Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center, and 72% believed that WMD had been found in Iraq. And most of them believed that the war in Iraq had strong support among Iraq's Muslim neighbors and our traditional allies in Europe, which of course is wrong. The Democrats as a whole had a much more accurate view of those events. And then PIPA went back twice to these same people. The first time it went back to the people that had these misinterpretations, and asked them where they were getting their news, and invariably they said talk radio and FOX news. And PIPA went back a third time, and made inquiries about their fundamental values, and it did start with a string of hypotheticals:

"What if there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? What if Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with bombing the World Trade Center? What if the U.S. Invasion of Iraq had little support among Iraq's Muslim neighbors and was largely opposed by Iraq's Muslim neighbors, and by our troops and allies in Europe? Should we have still gone in?" And roughly 80% of Dem and 80% of Rep said the same thing, "We should not." And so the values were the same. It was the facts, the information, it was the access to information that was different.

See full interview here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3079#more-3079

This man is a true patriot!

[rubberducky]

1. But........

Are politics in his future? Can`t imagine an honest politition, who does not need the money from lobbyests.:)

[unpossibles]

43. I don't get what you're saying.... n/t

[rzemanfl]

2. PIPA was before the election, not after. n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

53. Yeah in october..... still plus/minus a month of election day.

I think it is reflective of the perceptions of the public, they didnt change that much a month later....

[rzemanfl]

55. Let me know when your birthday is, I'll send you a card, plus or

minus a month.

[BlueEyedSon]

56. Mass public opinion changes a bit slower than mine

(of your birthday-card-sending!)

[rzemanfl]

57. My point was factual accuracy is important, especially since

there is so little of it these days.

[durrrty libby]

3. K ick for later

[benevolent dictator]

4. K&R nt

[jwirr]

5. Homeschooling and private brainwash schools. If you educate

people to be ignorant they are going to end up out of the loop.

[vixengrl]

12. I think this can be true.

Not 100%, but I remember the culture shock I went through when I went from a somewhat large public high school, to a small Catholic college. Some of my classmates, in, for example, Poli Sci 101, just seemed to drip with rightwing propaganda. For instance, when I see Sean Hannity, to this day I remember some of the rhetoric that came up in class. And the background of these students was the same white, middle/working class background I had--same neighborhoods, (it was a really local, "commuter" school), but + religion and + parochial education = right wing talking points.

Oddly, one of my friends there was a relation of a faculty member, same Irish Catholic background and semi-suburban rearing, but was Wiccan, gay and liberal. So I guess there's no guarantee.

[PegDAC]

15. That's exactly what the Repukes want.

They want the Populace not to question, to blindly accept.

[ClintonTyree]

34. That stems from their religious beliefs..........

remember, the first lesson from the bible is to NOT eat from the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is BAD! Knowledge will make you sin and will kill you. Blind faith and blind allegiance to the GOP go hand in hand. That's just my opinion, of course, your mileage may vary.

[ray of light]

36. excuse me...I'm a former homeschool parent and

I'm here and liberal! (And family members are here and liberal too.)


There's lots of us buddy!

[jwirr]

42. Sure there are some of you. However, *ss's concentrated effort

to destroy public education for everyone is big in many red states. I went to a conservative Lutheran college and I am here to but most of my fellow graduates are firmly in *ss's camp.

Also my main point was not that home school always produces idiots but that it can and all too often is used to brainwash children into following the leader no matter who the leader is.

[ray of light]

59. I think that parents do that no matter where their children school.

Look at the parents who chose a rigid religious school. Or some are adamently against public schools because they're 'liberal'.

Yes, homeschooling is a more intensive way to teach your children your values, but many times homeschoolers come out just as likely to be independent self-thinkers as well.

[xxqqqzme]

49. Amen - we home schooled our kids - both

are liberal and in some ways, more liberal than their parents(us).

[cyberpj]

51. 500 TV channels, Etainment as news, celebrity worship, video games, Ipods,

cellphones, Pimp my everything....... the list can be endless...

Train people to care about self-indulgence and ignore the rest of the world and they will.

[Seabiscuit]

6. I just love RFK, Jr.

His Air America slot is by far my favorite.

Once again, a Kennedy to the rescue!

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Oo, this is good! nt

[Mr_Spock]

8. I find this to be true myself

Even my liberal family is being caught up in the nazi newspin. People need to start thinking again for themselves :mad:

[pansypoo53219]

10. but but but

Fux news can't be wrong, can they?

[Mr_Spock]

11. It goes beyond Faux

Other than Olberman (who I have turned them on to for a little dose of truth), what is there?

[LibDemAlways]

13. You're right. When have any of the corporate

"news" sources told the truth about the criminals running the country? Never. Unless a person is savvy enough to turn to the foreign press and internet sources, he or she is getting nothing more than repuke propaganda. No wonder people are so ill-informed.

[The Wizard]

16. It should be called

Foxaganda

[mom cat]

9. He is so right on target. Only the top few Repubs are billionaires.

Many are working stiffs like us who are also getting screwed and who couls be and should be our natural political allies. We need to start thinking of those 80% as potential voters and keep up our press to get info out there.

[Malidictus Maximus]

14. One book worth reading, IMHO

I play a little game, trying to get people to read books contrary to their dogmatic beliefs. One book that does an excellent job of pointing out to conservatives that the ruling oligarchy is actually inimical to their core values is "Wake Up, You're Liberal" by Ted Rall. REgardless of what one may think of his cartoons (a bit too crude and vitriolic for me YMMV) his nonfiction writing is articulate and tightly reasoned, IMHO.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932360220/sr=8-1/qid=1153274199/ref=sr_1_1/103-5298197-9353466?ie=UTF8

[mom cat]

21. Thanks for the suggestion, and welcome to DU

:hi:

[xxqqqzme]

50. Agree - I worked a polling

place for the June primary - Orange County - Newport Beach...easily 80% of the registered rethug voters are voting rethug because their parents did or they have 'always been' a rethug. By their demeanor, dress or attitude these people are clearly voting against their own interests. That was my conclusion by the end of the day, these rethugs are democrats, they just don't know it......yet.

[aein]

17. We do have NPR N/T

[beltanefauve]

18. Hardly.

Sorry about my cynicism, but I've been a daily NPR listener for over 30 years. They've taken a sharp right turn in the last ten years or so. The Repukes have been cutting their funding for years. They've reacted by caving right, just like CNN did. This only serves to piss off the loyal listeners who stop cutting checks during pledge week. And this, unfortunately, doesn't hurt NPR, it hurts the local affiliates.

[Alexodin]

19. The saga of what happened to Bill Moyers put an end

to the idea that NPR remains unbiased.

[kath]

22. Wasn't Moyers on PBS, not NPR??

[Alexodin]

24. They answer to the same board of directors.

http://www.commonblog.com/story/2005/5/17/105537/710

[Dr Fate]

28. Sure- if you want to hear about the dying art of Andes basket weaving.

Please- are you REALLY suggesting that NPR presents news that is that much different than FOX, CNN, etc?

NPR reported that there was WMDs and all that other crap just as much as everyone else.

What are you talking about?

[Nabia2004]

29. NPR? Just another spin machine

I gave up on NPR. Listening to them repeat White House talking points during the run up to the Iraq war made it obvious that they could no longer be trusted.

[petgoat]

31. NPR's failure to cover the election fraud story totally

disgusted me. I'd trusted them for years, figured if it wasn't covered
on NPR, it wasn't happening. Boy did I learn different! They never told
the real story about 9/11 either.

I still listen sometimes 'cause it's interesting, but I want to scream
at the radio: "You're telling me about scorpions and giraffes and there's
important stuff going on!"

[blm]

48. NPR has been proGOP since the mid90s when Gingrich scared them into

cooperating with the GOPs fascist agenda.

[Cobalt-60]

20. Theyre isolated.

Many people in the more rural portions of the Red states are isolated.
Were they to speak against the fuhrer openly they are certain to receive a social penalty and possibly worse. Their political comissars mean business.
I'm reminded of a reagan commercial where the GOPS pointed out that no one would ever know
how they voted. The implication was that none of your fellows would actually know you were a class traitor.
This would be a good angle to push in the Reddest of the Red States.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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[link:www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html|Click
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[calimary]

26. Memo to WRONG Turns:

Bite thy tongue.

And it's Olbermann. O-L-B-E-R-M-A-N-N. The One Voice of TRUTH still in broadcasting. Thou shalt not diss him!

:grr:

[Autonomy]

27. aww, tombstoned after only 2 posts

sorry to see another flame thrower go. :P

[unpossibles]

44. funny how some threads seem to bring them out more than others... n/t

[Awsi Dooger]

25. Classic difference between a professional journalist and an internet blog

Are you kidding me, a quote like that and BradBlog (or whoever did the interview, apparently Joy and Tom Williams) goes straight to electronic voting machines? No threat of a followup?

That is perhaps the most inept and inflexible interview I've ever seen. I mean, that quote is GOLD. It could be featured on one program after another. Yet they are blinded by DRE paranoia so they head smack to computerized voting. Unbelievable. Talk about sticking to the scripted questions in front of you, even if the interviewee admits to mass murder.

I do give BradBlog credit for posting the interview, and the interviewers for the Georgia poll tax question. The election reform movement needs much more emphasis on low tech suppression and not Diebold. But come on, loosen up and LISTEN!

[abester]

35. and another one....

"The election reform movement needs much more emphasis on low tech suppression and not Diebold."

Do you say that out of simple ignorance or because you don't understand statistics?

[CountDmoney]

30. Thay don't know what's going on because

they're dumb. Or they don't care. They need to pull their head's out of the sand imo. He's just saying it in a nice way is all. They got what they deserve.

[rman]

32. those darn liberal media

[Gregorian]

47. It's the media. How do we change it?

We should be putting all of our energies into media accuracy/accountability/reform. But there isn't much we can do, short of buying them, or having an honest FCC.

Americans expect to get their news by sitting on a couch. So in that respect, the media is our main problem in this country.


RFK jr's statement used to be my sig line. He's brilliant in a multitude of areas.

[liberal N proud]

33. "who don't know what's going on" - that defines the Dems from

those who don't know that they should be Dems. The people who don't think for themselves.

[ProudDad]

37. And of the remaining 20%

.001% are the really rich and remaining 19.999% are complete, certifiable nut-jobs...

[oc2002]

38. I am not surprised. You ever listen to Fox?

Fox, at best reports half-truths in its 'NEWS' as the news.

Most people just do not care enough to find out the truth.

[wildeyed]

39. I have found this to be true.

I talk to my "conservative" friends about individual issues, and they are only slightly to the right on me. It infuriates me, because they continue to vote for these republican whack jobs, even though they don't represent their interests or values. I know a few people who actually agree with Bush and the pubs on most issues. Ironically, they infuriate me less. At least they are informed and vote for what they believe in, even if they are wrong.

[mkb]

40. Stay Informed

     I am hopeful that if people read the information and
opinion on this site and elsewhere, that they will become
informed and help to stem the roght-wing movement.  It's a
difficult process, but I do believe that history is
progressive over the long run.
     Being informed is a responsibility that I hope people
will work at, because the future, including your own, is
dependent upon people understanding what is going on and
making decisions that will contribute to that better world.

[dalaigh lllama]

41. You go, RFK!

80% of Republicans are just Democrats who don't know what's going on.

This is so TRUE. I have made an effort to be politically informed since 9/11, so of course I voted for Kerry. My husband and I had the worst arguments of our marriage when he went with Bush in 2004 (he bought into the media smearing of Kerry)-- he got all his news from the Corporate Media while I searched the internet for news from a variety of original sources. Sometime after the election I tripped across a website that had a test to take that told you what leaders were closest to your own political leanings. They had everyone from Stalin to Hitler, from Gandhi to Hussein, from Reagan to Kerry. My husband took the test and it turned out he was closest to Kerry politically. Yowsa!

I have stopped trying to convert him wholesale since 2004, but have instead started sharing tidbits from the news I get on a daily basis, so that he's getting more info now than he was before. Recently he told me he hopes the Republicans are soundly trounced this fall, because they have been such abysmal failures -- my information campaign has worked with at least one Repub!

[unpossibles]

45. that is great! It can be hard to be with someone and have politics

get in the way. Fortunately my wife is very liberal, but her parents and mine, while "getting better" are very conservative, and it can make for interesting holidays.... What's funny is, her sister and I have started discussing things with their dad and have actually gotten him to occasionally agree on some things once we point out facts he didn't have, or contradictions in his beliefs (he is against welfare but has gotten help from the government and from his parents when he was younger).

Sadly, he gets most (all?) of his info from Fox and RW radio, and it's obvious by how and when he brings things up - it amuses me that I can almost always tell when someone is arguing based on the RW talking points.

[IronLionZion]

46. Oh you'd be pleasantly surprised

Large swaths of the country are Republican only because the Democrats don't even try there.

Chairman Dean is kicking ass with his 50 state strategy. People in the reddest areas are shocked that somebody has finally decided to show up and listen to them. Trust me, the RNC have taken them for granted and ignored their needs. Others are just amazed to go to local Dem meetings and find out they are not the only Dem in the area.

Many red areas are economic liberals.

Even conservative Dems like Ben Nelson and Zell Miller win on education, social security, and healthcare. It's mind boggling to think that a radical lunatic like Zell Miller could produce a program as brilliant and wonderful as the HOPE scholarship.

[BlueEyedSon]

52. So the media is the enemy?

[Wisconsin Larry]

54. Unfortunately, a lot of this 80% do not want to know what is really

going on. I first heard RF, Jr. deliver the phrase that 80% of Republicans are really Democrats that just don't know what is going on in 2004 at a kick off meeting of Ward Captains for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Then, I read the PIPPA report which proved it.

But in talking to my neighbors during and after the campaign, I found many who just do not want to know anything that might suggest that the administration does not have their best interests at heart. Getting to the lies, corruption, and incompetence of the Bush administration is almost impossible.

It would appear that being Republican (even if the president is not really a Republican) is more important to some of them than finding candidates that support their stance on the environment, fiscal policy, health care, and foreign policy. Of course, having the press kowtow to Bush and repeat RW talking points with no rebuttal hasn't helped. My local paper thinks printing "analyzes" from the Cato Institute is presenting "another view" than the administration which paid for some of those columns. And some of my neighbors, the more "intelligent" ones do know what is going on and are pleased since they have bought into the entire neocon agenda.

On the plus side, I have been able to talk with Republicans who have gotten disgusted with the neocons and will be voting to get them out of office. However, getting the votes counted will be another story even in Wisconsin. Voter suppression is alive and well in our more populous counties, and the US Justice Department may help with voter suppression by requiring a driver's license to register to vote.

To end on the positive, more and more truth is "leaking" out. If we can keep it up, it will be very difficult not to know what is going on.

[ClassWarrior]

58. I have said this for as long as I can remember.

The Cons benefit from short attention spans.

NGU.

[pauliedangerously]

60. Right on.

Posts like this are the reason I come to DU.