Creigh Deeds, Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia
The Washington Post blog 44 posted a survey a few days ago that the RNC is sending out to voters in Virginia as the state gears up toward a hotly contested gubernatorial election.
What we seem to have, as we’ve seen a lot of lately, is an ill-informed public who are swayed by lies instead of facts.
The Republican National Committee has sent some Virginia voters a questionnaire suggesting that the president and Congressional Democrats want to expand welfare benefits with “no time, education or work requirements” and reinstitute the military draft — while raising the budget deficit well beyond what is projected by nonpartisan experts.
The fundraising survey, received this week by a Post reporter who lives in Northern Virginia, is called the “2009 Obama Agenda Survey” and comes as less than a month remains in the hard-fought gubernatorial race between Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Robert McDonnell for control of the swing-state.
The survey, touching on an array of divisive topics, is accompanied by a letter from GOP chairman Michael S. Steele describing the items in the survey questions as “Obama’s top priorities” and declaring, “I want you to know that the Republican Party is not dead.”
Some of the 15 questions:
1. Do you agree with Barack Obama’s budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion deficit over the next ten years?
3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?
4. Should English be the official language of the United States?
6. Are you in favor of expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats are pushing to pass?
9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington?
13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?”
The budget deficit is way higher than fair estimates, amnesty for illegal immigrants and expanded welfare benefits aren’t on the agenda, etc., etc. What disappoints me so much is how easy it is to lie to people. It doesn’t matter that the lies floating around about the health care debate and Obama’s administration in general are demonstrably false. You don’t even have to know that much to disprove them, you only need know how to read. I’m sure there’s a lot more going on; some people just don’t have faith in the nebulous, overarching power structure that they feel controls them. And some would say that these kind of raw ideas floating to the top is just a necessary price of democracy. Still. I feel pretty secure in thinking it would disappoint the founders to know these people get all of their information from Glenn Beck.
