Has the Republican Party Become the Anti-fact Party? The Birth of Lie-based Initiatives!

Like many others, I have taken my shot at explaining Donald Trump's appeal to Republican voters.  In this matter I have a great advantage over the mainstream media; I do not have to avoid explanations that paint a less than  flattering portrait of the voters who, in turn, are the customers of that same mainstream media.  How many people would stop patronizing a media outlet that came to the conclusion that Donald Trump's appeal to his party was based on the willful ignorance, bigotry or the irrational fear of many millions of Americans, the very people that a media outlet needs to appeal to in order to stay in business?

Yet the evidence is overwhelming; Trump's initial appeal was to birthers.  About 50% of the Republican Party was on board with the idea that Pres. Obama was not born in the U.S.  A small minority of Republicans believed that Ted Cruz was not born in the U.S. when, in fact, he was
NOT born in the U.S.  Neither fact is a secret, but this is what they believe anyway.

Start adding up the other things that a majority of Republican voters believe that are contrary to the facts as best as we can know them; many believe in Creationism, and Young Earth Creationism at that; most deny that Global Climate change is a result of human activity as if the effects of Greenhouse Gases is debatable.   But now you can add an impressive new list of willfully ignorant items or outright lies that Republican voters are willing to accept, overlook or even embrace.  What about the total lack of negative push-back by voters when Trump re-tweeted a

fictitious, false, inflammatory and racist chart (see above);  or when he implied that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK; or when he accused Hillary Clinton of abusing women who had affairs with her husband; or when he suggests that former Clinton aide Vince Foster did not commit suicide but may have been murdered with Clinton involvement; or when he said that John McCain was not a war hero; or that he saw thousands of Muslims on rooftops on TV celebrating 9-11 in New Jersey; or when he calls Bernie Sanders a communist...  I am sure I've missed dozens of whopping big lies.  (Go to http://www.dailywire.com/news/4834/trumps-101-lies-hank-berrien .)

The one common thread in all this is that what Trump supporters like about Trump is precisely his dislike of fact; facts have become "politically correct" and possess what Colbert has described as a "liberal bias."  Of course facts really do not have such a bias but yes indeed many people now oppose "facts" because it is "politically incorrect" to oppose facts and being "politically incorrect" is a good thing!

That is why Trump can lie about other Republicans as well as Democrats, Conservatives as well as Liberals, because it is the opposition to fact that his supporters adore.  Do not get me wrong on this - I am not saying that left leaning ideologues do not do the same thing - they do, such as in those who believed that Bush and Cheney somehow were in on 9-11 and "allowed" it to happen.  It's just that those leftist ideologues have not quite taken over the Democrat Party.  The ideologues/believers and anti-fact yahoos have taken over the Republican Party and their main goal is to oppose all kinds of facts that contradict their beliefs.

This is the mess that Republican leaders have created with their years, if not decades of pandering to the willfully ignorant in their ranks.  By promoting the "faith-based" initiatives the party has embraced in the past, not surprisingly the party members have evolved into demanding "lie-based' initiatives.  Trump is delivering.

You read that here first.

Explaining Donald Trump and Why Most Media Outets Will Not Do This

Why is Donald Trump leading in the polls for the Republican race for the presidential nomination?  Is it his focus on brilliant solutions to our most pressing problems?  Is it his personal demeanor which gives his supporters the confidence that he has the temperament to be the leader of the free world?

Nahh!

It's because his supporters are mostly birthers who believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim.

In other words his supporters support Trump because they identify with his outspoken ignorance, his inability to admit mistakes and his trait of speaking in very angry ego-maniacal tones.  These supporters gravitate towards people who are certain even if they're certainly wrong.  For many, certainty is a virtue while doubt is a vice.

Now here is something that certainly will not bother Trump supporters although it may interest others; the evidence for the above conclusions.  A poll from the Public Policy Polling group on 9/3/15 asked some very good and timely questions.  Go to 

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/trump-supporters-think-obama-is-a-muslim-born-in-another-country.html .

66% of Trump supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim.  Only 12% believe he is a Christian.  Yup, Obama is one of them gay-loving liberal Muslim jihadists!  Only 21% of Trump supporters believe Obama was born in the United States while at the same time 40% of them actively believe that Sen. Ted Cruz WAS born in the U.N. (Cruz was born in Canada.)

Check that out - birthers were totally aghast that Obama became President since he was a Muslim foreigner while ignoring the undisputed fact that Ted Cruz was indeed born abroad and is only a natural born citizen by virtue of the fact that his mother was born in the U.S., which would also be true of Obama (if indeed he was born in Kenya) since no one argues that Obama's mother was born anywhere but in Kansas!

So why will the Media ignore the above?  Why do they almost never mention the fact that Trump, for a while, was birther #1?  The answer is simple; because to point this out would be to insult the intelligence and sanity of most of his supporters and perhaps a majority of Republicans, which is a large portion of the Media's audience/customers.  Please keep in mind that this does not mean ALL Republicans are willfully ignorant and of dubious sanity - John McCain certainly does not fall into this camp, for example.  Oh yeah, is it any coincidence that Trump turned on McCain much to the delight of Trump's supporters?  I guess that is the price John McCain has to pay for not being totally ignorant or insane.