Innumerate
At The Corner, Byron York links to a New York Times-CBS poll done this past week. This is unbelievable (emphasis mine):
And, toward the end of the poll, this question: “Just as your best guess, about what percentage of all Americans are black: less than 10 percent, between 10 and 20 percent, between 20 and 30 percent, between 30 and 50 percent, or more than 50 percent?” Virtually no one said less than ten percent. Twenty-one percent gave the correct answer, which is between 10 and 20 percent. Thirty-two percent answered between 20 and 30 percent. Another 32 percent answered between 30 and 50 percent. And nine percent said more than 50 percent. Which means that 73 percent of respondents overestimated, many of them by a huge margin, the percentage of the American population that is black. I think these numbers are consistent with the results of other polls, but they are still amazing.
The ignorance in our country is astounding. No wonder the Democratic Party has nominated someone as unqualified as Barack Obama to be the President: the electorate doesn’t know even the most basic demographic facts about itself.
Christ, save us all!
