Most conservatives are Calvinists. The poor/sick etc, ie anybody not as well of as them, are obviously not of the 'elect' and we should just accept the harsh reality that God Hates Them and maybe even help Him along in His Divine Plan to make life miserable and short for these defective souls. Who are we to question?


As they filter just about anything they hear through this belief rather thoroughly they're generally monstrously misinformed on most issues.

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Alizee Jacotay, the reason god invented hips

It is about the social contract known as our Constitution being the supreme law of the land; and morals, and ethics, concerning our form of Statism.

Are you refuting your own argument concerning abominable hypocrisy and our purchased elected representatives to government?

Only a majority of true Canannites, true Gamorrans, or true Sodomites, or false Christians would, or could, continue to re-elect those same representatives to Government, with a McCarthy era phrase in our pledge and social contract.

you lose, i win.

Bush had control of the press, it was an American Gestapo

The TV news is the Shadow Government.

Morals? Ethics?

Those days are gone.

Whence then, any legitimacy to any appeal to religious morals?

Secular morals are embodied in our social contract and Constitution, and are routinely applied as the mechanism of due process according to the form of social justice thereby enabled by it.

I think the question is certainly one of a massive generalisation; however I don't think it's fair to "blame" anyone for their ignorance of issues. From where I see it (and my personal experience) I think it has a lot to do with how the US news media broadcasts their daily events. I mean really, how much coverage do foreign events really get? Virtually none. Sure there are some sources which do have an international focus, but only the die-hard news buffs search out those sources; the everyday citizen just watches their nightly news which is virtually solely focused on local or national activities.

The same can be said for sporting events. The free-to-air coverage of the last two Olympic Games only showed events when the US was competing. Heck, China even moved the time of the swimming finals to accomodate US viewing audiences as Americans wouldn't want to watch this one-every-four-years outside of their viewing comfort zone, whilst the rest of the world has been for decades (for those who don't know, the swimming finals commenced at 9am in the morning, when the heats are traditionally in the mornings, and the finals in the evening. It has been this way since open swimming began in the late 50s).

Therefore I think it's not fair to blame the average citizen but more appropriate to blame those who are responsible for the social culture that has been created by years of neglect of current affairs.

Folks, I know this topic may inflame some sharp responses, but please don't attack/insult each other, and stay on topic. I've just cleaned up the thread. Further bickering and I'll start issuing infractions.

I wouldn't be so sure the internet is so useful for keeping people informed.

Every time I look for information on google up comes numerous sites which are dubious at best, and often full of gross distortions of fact.

If you don't have the skills to discriminate, and don't know WHERE to look the internet can be dangerous. I have seen this on a number of topics.

television news - and not just the US - is limited in what it provides. There are some good media sources, but these are not so popular. people prefer infotainment style "news" which doesn't really inform - it either presents bytes of information suitable for elementary school students (and thus gives limited information on a topic), or is partisan.

There is also , as someone said earlier - a focus on local/national rather than international issues.

I find Americans are often unaware of the world around them and the role their country plays in international relations. Not unique to Americans, but seemingly more common.

We suffer from informtion overload, shrt attention spans, combined with infotainment being the most common substitute for real news. This is often combined with cultural arrogance. Ignorance is one thing, but believing that your way is the right/only way combined with that ignorance means it won't end anytime soon.

Many Americans are uninformed because they simply don't care. Too busy following gossip, sports, and entertainment news. The pitfall of a prosperous and spoiled country.

I generally read wiki articles for general information regarding topics. If I need to look into an issue further, I look for those issues for comparison and contrast.

How many people have actually read their own Constitution? It is written in simple American English and is easy to understand. It explains how our form of federal Statism is supposed to work. The Federalist Papers offer the rationale for our Constitution.

WRONG, because the notion that the poor are so because of anything other than their OWN choices and doing (not God's hatred, or "losing the lottery of life") is far more emblematic of the left than the right.

God doesn't make people poor. The poor (in this country) are so overwhelmingly due to their own choices in life. It's liberals who dismiss poverty as something utterly outside of the influence of those living in it, who thus require good liberals to extract the hard earned fruit of other's labors to redistribute to them.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

Gibberish and nonsense. Evidence shows that conservatives are more generous to the poor through charitable giving than liberals by a sizeable margin. Charity is not only voluntary but it is very personal and self-directed and reflects the inner person. Sort plays hob with your pet theory.

Liberals think it makes them good and charitable to force other people to sacrifice for what they are not willing to do themselves.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

I saw that in the original post. It is odd isn't it? I suppose the polls, regardless of how well informed the respondents are, are pretty valid After all, they expressed an opinion and they likely will vote. For years, I have said that there should be some kind of test required in order to vote. 3 maybe 4 questions like: Who is the Vice President. Who is the speaker of the House? Recite, or paraphrase one amendment to the US Constitution. and How long a term does a US Senator serve?
Surely, 98% of USPOL members could easily answer all 4, but I doubt that 50% of the general population could get 3 of the 4.
Every one is entitled to an opinion, but your vote should be based on your convictions, not on skin color or how your daddy voted.
I was torn when answering the poll. Though, sadly Americans that keep up with events seem to be in the minority, I find that the worst offenders tend to lean left in the voting booth.

Of course "God doesn't make people poor." For that to be true, a true God would have to actually exist, and a true God doesn't exist. So your statement is correct in that regard.


Even if we accept the claim that self-proclaimed conservatives are more generous, the act of giving of one's self is not actually conservative as it is not conserving their resources. Generosity is a liberal trait.