Calling them "stupid" would be too kind

I learned today the depth of ignorance of my fellow citizens.

A new Fox News poll was released this afternoon. In addition to the usual questions - Barack Obama's approval rating (63%), Congressional approval (41%), they threw in some very enlightening stuff...disturbing as hell, but enlightening.

For example, lower taxes and smaller government are favored over higher taxes and big government by a 55% to 35% margin and 56% think our current government is too big. People correctly see Obama as a big government kind of guy, 77% to 11%. Somehow, they still manage to delude themselves into believing that he's legitimately trying to fix the economy, rather than pushing the Democratic party's agenda, 55% to 30%, 66% think Obama is meeting or exceeding expectations, 58% think he is keeping his promises. A lot of ignorance in some of those numbers, and some pretty tough contradictions to reconcile, but what the heck...we all know people don't think.

Here's the kicker. When asked:
In thinking about funding the federal government, which of the following statements do you believe?
1. The federal government has plenty of money of its own without using taxpayer dollars, or
2. The federal government is entirely funded by taxes and taxpayer dollars

24% said government has it's own money! 24%!! 8% said neither, and 3% said they didn't know.

A full 35% of the population of this country doesn't understand even the most basic idea that government produces nothing of value, and is entirely dependent on tax collections for revenue. What the hell? How is this even possible??? It's question #12 in the poll...you can look it up for yourself here.

We wonder how we got to this point...how our proud, self-reliant, defiantly free nation finds itself falling so far...now we know. More than a third of our population does not have enough sense to come in out of the rain. If ever there were proof that we need a test of some sort to determine eligibility for voting (hell...for reproducing!), this is it. There simply are not words to express my astonishment. Who are these people? What rock are they living under? Are they even remotely functional in society? How have we allowed this to happen?

This is seriously bad news, folks. When such a sizable slice of a country's citizens has absolutely no clue how their country works, the end surely cannot be far away. Perhaps there isn't enough left in this country that's worth the effort to redeem...perhaps it is time for it to end.