Acorn More Powerful Now That It's Dead

I tweeted yesterday afternoon, someone please tell me this new PPP poll is a parody:

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. Wefound that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.

That would be pretty impressive, considering that Acorn no longer exists as an organization. Like George Bailey, it's worth more dead than alive.

It gets worse--or better, depending on your perspective:

Some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure.

I'm a little disappointed that the 25 percent figure isn't a tad higher. If you dig deep into the crosstabs, you see that the secession number among "very conservative" respondents is 37 percent. By age, it's highest among youngest voters, which stands to reason I suppose.

There is yet hope for my disunion movement, because the poll didn't ask conservatives in specific states. I'd like to see someone do a poll on this question of Republicans in the states of the Confederacy. I bet it'd be above 50 in most of them.

On some other questions, Republicans gave a few not entirely unreasonable answers. For example, even very conservative respondents had a slightly negative view of Grover Norquist (by which I think the poll means his influence on politics; personally, Grover is a nice fellow, as I will happily attest). However, they do think it's important that Republicans stick to the pledge. In other polls, Republicans express a few non-self-parodic opinions--for example, they agree that they don't want to see the Medicare eligibility age raised.

In other words: On specific questions of policy, it's possible at least to have a somewhat rational conversation with Republicans. But mention one of their emotional hot-button words--Acorn, secession--and all reason sprints out the front door. This dynamic of course damages our politics every day, as the GOP base insists on those buzzwords, wants them like monkeys want cocaine, and they block any chance of reasonable discussion.