The Republican Party
Too extreme 36%
Generally mainstream 58%
Mixed/Neither (vol.) 4%
No opinion 3%

The Democratic Party
Too extreme 42%
Generally mainstream 53%
Mixed/Neither (vol.) 3%
No opinion 2%

The Tea Party Movement
Too extreme 43%
Generally mainstream 41%
Mixed/Neither (vol.) 6%
No opinion 10%

As Michael Tomasky sees it:

So here we have a party that is attempting to dismantle the legal and governmental structure of the state as it has existed in the US for in some cases 45 years, in others 75 years, or in still others a century; a party in its soul despises the separation of church and state, which goes back 230 years; a party whose official, for-the-record document this year hardly even acknowledges that non-white Americans exist; et cetera. And it is less extreme than the other party?

For background — and at least in theory — capitalism and democracy are supposed work best when consumers/citizens possess a substantial amount of factual information about the products they are shopping for and the candidates for whom they may vote.  The thinking goes that the less factual information these consumers/citizens have, the more susceptible they will be to artificial and inefficient distortions in the system brought on by businesses/candidates manipulating the ignorant into making irrational choices (and vice versa).

The biggest problem with this “information” dynamic in a democracy is that most people self-interestedly view civic life as a one-way street of rights flowing to them — i.e., “I have my rights; Government: go protect them” — with little to no attention paid to the equally important counterpart of rights, which are responsibilities.

I think we can all agree that one of most fundamental and important responsibilities for a person living in a democracy is to vote.  But what goes along with that responsibility?  Leaving aside the fact that a shameful amount of people fail even to vote, let us also give mind to the millions of people who do vote but do so without fulfilling an equally important set of responsibilities, e.g., seeking out factual information and becoming informed on the issues.

It’s polls like this, and the thinking it engenders in me, that makes me wonder why I even bother to care about the political realm anymore.  I view it as my civic responsibility to speak out about all of this bullshit — but if we’re just going to be perpetually ruled by the carnival barkers, patent medicine hucksters and timeshare salesmen who get elected by blissfully ignorant voters that are too lazy to learn about key facts*, what’s the point!?

P.S. And by the way, if I hear one more well-meaning person react to criticism of the American voter similar to what I wrote above with something like, “Oh, but they’re busy!  And have families and kids and soccer and PTA!”, I’m going to go postal.  To him I say: Seeking out and finding factual information on politicians is not that hard and takes very little time on The Intertubes.  Not only that, there are a lot of people with lives that are WAY fucking busier than yours who still manage to stay informed.  Stop copping excuses and go find some facts, you whiny fucker!

P.P.S.  And c’mon, how many countless hours do the aforesaid “busy” Americans waste obsessing over their local sports teams and/or gobbling up all the celebrity gossip they can get their hands on?

* E.g., The 47% of Americans who think that Obama signed the big bailout bill, not Bush.