Not the useful four-legged species that give us sweaters and butterflied leg of lamb with mint jelly. Nope, we’re talking the far less helpful, two-legged kind, you know: Democrats and Republicans.
A USA Today Poll out today identified the sheep in question:
The survey asked 1,000 Americans to assess two education policies. The first plan was to reduce class sizes and make sure schools teach the basics. The second was to increase teacher pay while making it easier to fire bad teachers.
For half the sample, the first plan was labeled a Democratic plan and the second a Republican plan.
Okay, fair enough, but:
Then the labels were switched for the other half. The “Democratic” plan became the “Republican” plan, and vice versa.
And what did the sheep do then?
In both cases, about three-fourths of Democrats and Republicans lined up behind the plan they had been told belonged to their party. In fact, both sides were inclined to describe their support as intense, to say they “strongly” favored it — regardless of which policy it happened to be.
Sheep happens.
Polarized, mindless sheep so incapable of critical thinking about the merits of an issue that they just line up behind which every party is marching them off the Left cliff or the Right cliff. With the same splat at the bottom.
Read the rest of the USA Today piece. And weep.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
