A recent poll has come out of Fairleigh Dickenson stating that a majority of Americans believe in one or more of four supposed conspiracies. I suspect a lot of Kossacks believe the same things I do about two of them. How many of us would have said "yes" to those on the poll? Follow me below the squiggly......
I haven't been able to confirm the exact wording of the poll questions, but the media is reporting it something like this:
1 - belief that Bush supporters committed voter fraud in 2004
2 - belief that Bush knew about 9/11
3 - belief that Obama supporters committed voter fraud in 2012
4 - belief that Obama is hiding the truth about his early life.
We have had a lot of discussion here about right wing conspiracists - the people who think that Obama was born in Kenya, or that Acorn stole the 2012 election for Obama, in spite of the fact that it was hounded out of existence after the 2008 election. But what about #1 and #2? The two that supposedly prove that "liberals do it too"? How do people feel about those?
Here is what I believe about 9/11....
I believe that our intelligence community picked up a lot of evidence prior to 9/11 that an attack was planned on US soil, and that it would involve airplanes. I believe that memos to that effect were sent to members of he Bush administration, and to Bush himself. I believe that then security czar Richard Clark made a trip to Crawford shortly before 9/11 to personally tell Bush that there was a threat, and that Bush dismissed it. Clark has publically described that meeting, and I do not believe that anyone with the Bush administration has ever denied it.
Here's what I do not believe.... I do not believe that Bush was told that so-and-so was going to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center on this date. I do not believe that Bush "wanted" the attack, or made a conscious decision to allow it, in order to justify invading Iraq. I simply think he was an incompetent moron. So, do I believe in a "conspiracy"? How do I answer the poll?
Here is what I believe about the 2004 election....
Republicans in charge of the mechanics of voting in 2004 (and 2008 and 2012) made the conscious, willful decision to try to suppress Democratic votes. The ballot design that caused Dade County voters to mistakenly vote for Nader in 2000 was suspicious, but might have been simple incompetence. But I don't think it was incompetence that the number of voting machines sent to traditional Democratic areas was intentionally inadequate for expected turnout, and that the number sent to traditional Republican areas was intentionally generous. I do believe that happened, and was intentional. So, how do I answer the poll?
If I had been polled, I likely would have said "yes" to belief in both of these supposed conspiracy theories. I suspect that many of us here would have. Are we nut cases? Should we be questioning the media's conclusion that "both sides do it"? Is there some analysis that people can make about questions number 3&4 that would make them answer "yes" without being nutcases?
This poll has bothered me ever since I first read about it. I would appreciate other people's take on it.
Edited to correct year of Nader on he Florida ballot