If you've wondered how those in the Republican base, especially those who don't have much, can continue to support the Republican Party, then let me enlighten you. It's because they don't have a connection to the real world. They have decided what they want to believe, and cling to those beliefs in spite of facts to the contrary. Facts don't really matter to these people.
The two charts above illustrate this perfectly. They made up their minds years ago that President Obama was not born in the United States, and many still claim to believe that -- in spite of both the short and long-form birth certificates being released, all the newspaper accounts of the birth, and the repeated assurances of officials in Hawaii. About 44% of all Republicans, 61% of Trump supporters, and 64% of teabaggers swear that the president was not born in this country.
And when it comes to a presidential candidate in their own party, Ted Cruz, they still want to deny reality. Cruz was born in Canada, but significant pluralities of all GOP groups believe he was born in the United States (and 55% of teabaggers believe that).
This should tell you all you need to know. A significant portion of the Republican base have no use for reason or logic.
These charts were made from a new Public Policy Polling survey -- done between August 28th and 30th of a random national sample of 572 Republicans, with a 4.1 point margin of error.
