We’ve all long suspected that the Republicans, consumed with hatred for President Obama’s health-care reforms, have shifted sharply to the right. Now, thanks to a new Harris poll, we have the data to prove it.
Here are some of the key findings:
- 57 per cent of Republicans (and 32 per cent of Americans) believe that Obama is a Muslim.
- 45 per cent of Republicans (25 per cent of Americans) agree with the Birthers that Obama was “not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president”.
- 38 per cent of Republicans (20 per cent of Americans) say that Obama is “doing many of the things that Hitler did”.
- 24 per cent of Republicans (14 per cent of Americans) say that Obama “may be the Antichrist”.
How naive Obama’s dream of a “post-partisan” politics now appears. Any possibility of a more bipartisan approach has been destroyed by a series of sinister smear campaigns.
The US today is far more fractured than it was under George W Bush, and is only likely to become more so in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections.
Liberals most now confront a form of political extremism that little can appease.
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