Media Myth Debunked: Republicans Are More Informed About Politics Than Democrats

A consistent media contention is that liberals and Democrats are far more informed about politics than conservatives and Republicans.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center quite debunked this myth:

Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats on several questions in the survey, as is typically the case in surveys about political knowledge. The largest gaps are in awareness of which party is more supportive of reducing the size and scope of the federal government (30 points) and which party is more conservative (28 points).

Republicans also are 21 percentage points more likely than Democrats to know that the GOP is more supportive of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [...]

Republicans also are more familiar with the partisan affiliation of two leading Democrats – one from the present, Nancy Pelosi, and one from the past, Franklin Roosevelt. Three-quarters (75%) of Republicans know that Pelosi is a Democrat, compared with 59% of Democrats. And while 73% of Republicans identify FDR as a Democrat, just 58% of Democrats do so.

Independents also are less knowledgeable than Republicans about the parties’ positions on a number of issues and the affiliation of some political leaders. Notably, independents (71%) are less likely than Republicans (85%) or Democrats (84%) to know that John F. Kennedy was a Democrat.

Although this is certainly good news for the Right, one has to be truly saddened by the number of people on either side of the aisle that can't answer all these questions correctly.

I finished the test in about a minute scoring 100 percent. Only eight percent of respondents so far have gotten a perfect score.

Sheesh.

Take this remarkably simple test yourself and see how you do compared to the rest of the nation.

(H/T Pat Dollard)