Are Republicans Really Aliens?

If you pay attention to any news at all, you can be forgiven in thinking that Republicans must be from a different planet. There can be no way that thinking, reasonable human beings can believe some of the things that Republicans purport to believe. They can't be the gun crazed, self centered, narcissistic, uncaring monsters of money that they seem to be. And sure enough, they aren't. When we look closer at what they actually believe, we find that we all deem most of the same things important.

Gallop recently updated their World Affairs survey, and the results should be surprising to anyone that believes that Democrats and Republicans think markedly different on the vast majority of issues.

Gallup measured Americans' support for nine major foreign policy objectives in this year's World Affairs survey, conducted Feb. 7-10. While at least seven in 10 Americans consider each objective at least somewhat important, the percentage rating each "very important" ranges from 31% to 88%.

A similar range of support for the nine goals is seen among Republicans, independents, and Democrats, although the two major party groups differ significantly in the rank order of the lower importance goals. The total rank order among independents comes close to that of Americans overall.

And there is the surprise. Republicans don't really think all that different from Independents or Democrats. The main difference is that the public face of their party is represented by people that can't get their heads out of their own asses. The people that claim to represent conservative ideals seek to create division where no division exists. We need to find a better way to pursue political consensus instead of putting the biggest blowhards on television to see which one can shout the loudest.

Remember the next time you see a news show host ranting about the evils of liberalism that the American people mostly agree with each other. What we need to do is quit watching the news shows that are more interested in creating division where none exists then reporting on reality.