This study of public opinion and knowledge about the Affordable Care Act, by the Kaiser Family Foundation, highlights a fundamental problem with American politics today: conservatives don't know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, this does not stop them from being adamant in their opinions.
The study asks the type of questions that need to be asked more often. At they same time that the Foundation polled opinions, they tested responders' knowledge about the law. With this combined information, we can make some conclusions about the value of the opinions; if certain groups tend to be particularly ill-informed about an issue, it is only reasonable that we might want to dismiss their opinions, or at least give them less weight than more informed groups.
And, surprise surprise, conservative responders displayed their unrivaled ignorance when they had to answer some simple questions about the law. These are the percentages of certain groups who scored high (7 or more right out of 10) on the quiz that was included in the poll
People who want to repeal the whole law 13% high scorers
People who want to expand the law 38%
Republicans 18%
Democrats 32%
Fox News watchers 25%
CNN watchers 35%
MSNBC 39%
Conservatives and opponents of the law scored very poorly on the test as a whole compared to other groups. If you don't know anything about an issue, you logically should not express a strong opinion about it, but that doesn't stop today's conservatives. They are happy to watch Fox News, wrap themselves in ignorance, and screw things up for their more informed and responsible fellow citizens.
And if you think the phenomenon of conservatives not knowing even the simplest facts is confined to health care, you should just go turn on Fox News and enjoy yourself.
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