This had to be a tough one for lefty Pew Research, but they keep doing it anyway - quizzing Democrats and Republicans on political knowledge since 1987, and Republicans keep coming out on top in spite of Lefty Elitist professors. The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) points to Pew's attempt to soften "previous blowouts [Republicans smarter] to a complete shutout in the latest edition [Republicans smarter on every question].
In a scientific survey of 1,168 adults conducted during September and October of last year, respondents were asked not only multiple-choice questions, but also queries using maps, photographs and symbols. Among other subjects, participants identified international leaders, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, nations on a world map, the current unemployment and poverty rates and war casualty totals.
In a 2010 Pew survey, Republicans outperformed Democrats on 10 of 12 questions, with one tie and Democrats outperforming Republicans on just 1 of the 12. In the latest survey, however, Republicans outperformed Democrats on every single one of 19 questions.
Amusingly, the Pew report attempted to soften the stark partisan knowledge disparity:
“Republicans generally outperformed Democrats on the current quiz. On 13 of the 19 questions, Republicans score significantly higher than Democrats and there are no questions on which Democrats did better than Republicans. In past knowledge quizzes, partisan differences have been more muted, though Republicans often have scored somewhat higher than Democrats.”
“Generally outperformed?” “Somewhat higher?” That’s a curiously charitable way to describe the surveys, which went from previous blowouts to a complete shutout in the latest edition.
Those Pew results are confirmed by some surprising other sources. According to a New York Timesheadline dated April 14, 2010, “Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated.” Shattering widespread myths, that survey revealed that Tea Party supporters were more likely to possess a college degree than their counterparts (23% to 15%), and also more likely to have completed post-graduate studies (14% to 10%). Tea Partiers were also more likely to have completed “some college” by a 33% to 28% margin, and substantially less likely to have not completed high school than non-supporters (3% versus 12%), or to possess only a high school degree (26% versus 35%)...
On his current tour, Obama also inaccurately maligned former President Rutherford B. Hayes as disdainful of the telephone. As Mona Charen also noted this week, Obama also “told us that America invented the automobile and that John F. Kennedy had met with Nikita Kruschev when we were on the brink of nuclear war,” when in fact the automobile was invented in Germany and Kennedy actually met Kruschev one year prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This is the same President who referred to “57 states,” misstated the Citizens United decision in an address to the nation, pronounced Navy “corpsman” as “corpse-man” and blatantly misrepresented that Japanese automobiles now average 45 miles per gallon to our 27.5 standard. Source: CFIF, posted March 2012Particularly we credit those Progressive educators at all levels of education for the lack of learning in Democrats - purposefully dumbing them down, purposefully distorting history, purposefully promoting a lifestyle of poverty and victimhood - and cheering on those who would put a crucifix with Christ on the Cross in a jar of urine, and screaming when we want to defund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
How many Republicans are yelling "ObamaPhone" "Keep Obama in President, you know" "Everybody in Cleveland minority got ObamaPhone." Then there's Joe Biden.
A previous Pew study referred to here quoting Yahoo Daily News measured "partisan differences on 48 areas that it has tracked since 1987...." The video below is a part of that story, with the transcript, and shows that Democrats can't come out on top on politics, even when the survey is weighted toward Democrats, 339 Democrats and 239 Republicans.
A new survey shows that Republicans and supporters know a lot more about politics and political history than Democrats. On 8 of 13 questions about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by a whopping average of 18 percentage points according to a new Pew Survey on partisan differences in knowledge.
Pew Survey confirms to a wave of surveys and studies, the GOP are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans. The lesser intelligent, close-minded people who support the Democratic party, Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats on several questions on the survey as is typically the case on surveys about political knowledge, said the study. The widest partisan gap in the survey came in at an unbelievable 30 points when only a paltry 46% of Democrats compared to 76% of Republicans correctly described the GOP as the party generally more supportive of reducing the size of government. The survey quizzed 1,000 people, including 239 Republicans and 334 Democrats.Those involved in the Tea Party movement, more educated. No surprise to us but devastating to Chris Matthews and red-headed Radio Madman Ed Schultz.
Republicans Smarter Than Democrats on Political Knowledge According to Pew Survey (Video/Audio)
Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook