1 out of 5 Republicans Agree: Rectally feeding suspected terrorists is a-ok!

[Lief 🗽]

https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/12/12/torture-report/

[BaconBacon96]

A lot of Republicans don't really seem to care about the dignity and human rights of people so I'm not surprised.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It is just sad that 28% of the country would put a detainee into a coffin-sized box, 35% support Waterboarding, 31% would support committing 'sexual violence' on detainees, 30% support familial genocide, and 11% support 'anus-feeding'. The 'nazi-like' sector of the population on this subject is far too large.

And I'm totally not surprised that the Michelle Bachmann/Rick Santorum 'torture is essential!' part of the republican party makes up 20% of it.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Party of Freedom!

[morgieb]

The fact that most of them got majorities of Republican voters concerns me. Torture is never a good thing.

[Adam Griffin]

The prudish and sadistic nature of Republicans becomes evident when more of them are opposed to "forced nudity" than tricking human beings' brains and bodies into thinking that they're drowning.

[pbrower2a]

When I was a child in the 1960s, I would have never expected one Party to be so different in moral standards. Both parties believed in an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. Both believed that education was a good thing. Both had similar attitudes toward both public and private debt. Both held that the rules had to be the same for rich and poor (perhaps being somewhat less lenient toward misconduct in the well-paid professions because of the assumption of responsibility for physicians, dentists, attorneys, engineers, scientists, etc).

In the 1960s I would have expected Democrats and Republicans alike to have similar attitudes toward torture -- that it is something that one associates with evil people in the defunct Gestapo and the still-loathsome Soviet secret police. We associated torture with a stock villain of a movie who says

"Ve haff vays uff findink out" or "Ve haff vays to make you talk". 

Really, it sounds just the same with a fake Russian accent as with a fake German accent. When such words are ever spoken in some American regional accent... we Americans have a big problem. It does not matter whether the accent suggests Baltimore or rural Mississippi.



Think carefully. If 51% of the people in an organization believe that it is acceptable to threaten family members of the person interrogated, then does that suggest anything other than a pathological organization? If 61% think it acceptable to slam someone into a wall (likely good for broken bones)?

What is this group -- one of the classic organized crime syndicates? No -- that is too low an estimate.  Aryan Nations? The KKK? No -- it is the Republican Party. Since about half of the people of America with any partisan affiliation are Republicans, just think of what this means in police forces and the Armed Services. 

It is telling that elected Republican pols have been silent about reports of such behavior. They do not deny it; even those first elected to high office in 2010  and were not in office when Dubya and Cheney were messing up American badly. Republicans in elected office probably support such horrid behavior to a greater degree than Republicans not in political office.

By the way -- I am also  troubled by the 19% of Democrats who think it acceptable to threaten family members of someone under interrogation and by the 29% of Democrats who think it acceptable to slam someone into a wall during interrogation. 

[user12345]

What nice humane people live in America. Good job "Christians".

[Türkisblau]

Again, I am not convinced at all that anyone in the Republican Party are actually the good Christians that they pretend to be.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

[Cassius]

What nice humane people live in America. Good job "Christians".

Being a Christian and supporting the use of torture if neccessary are not mutually exclusive. Just ask Thomas Wriothesley.

[Adam Griffin]

What nice humane people live in America. Good job "Christians".

Being an American Christian™ and supporting the use of torture if neccessary are not mutually exclusive.

[checkers]

Horrific, of course - but I'm more shocked that so many Democrats seem to approve of some of the "milder" (!) torture practices. 

[7,052,770]

To be fair, I imagine most Republicans view the terrorist suspects as almost certainly guilty, while Democrats are more likely to have at least some doubt about it.

I'm sure if you asked everyone separately whether they approved of the methods on "almost certainly guilty terrorists" and "terrorism suspects with a decent chance of being innocent" you'd see a much narrower gap.

Or maybe I'm just giving Republicans too much benefit of the doubt.

[Maxwell]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

I'm glad some Democrats have at least enough heart to know these tactics are awful and the sense to know that these tactics don't work. I'm sure a good deal of them would be okay with it if Obama did it on the Colbert Report, but not enough for me not to praise the ones with sense.

[King]

Waiting for Reaganfan's explanation.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

Why?

How are we supposed to interrogate effectively if we can't cause a minimal amount of discomfort for the detainees? A terrorist knows they aren't getting released, I doubt the good cop/bad cop routine is going to work on them.

[Flake]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

Why?

How are we supposed to interrogate effectively if we can't cause a minimal amount of discomfort for the detainees? A terrorist knows they aren't getting released, I doubt the good cop/bad cop routine is going to work on them.

Your argument was great except for the major flaw that there is no evidence supporting the claim that torture leads to information not already obtained by the US government.

[memphis]

Waiting for Reaganfan's explanation.

Americans are the good guys. The terrorists are bad. 9/11. It's all explained by this cheesy late 1980s that you now vaguely recall but hadn't thought about in 20 years.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

Why?

How are we supposed to interrogate effectively if we can't cause a minimal amount of discomfort for the detainees? A terrorist knows they aren't getting released, I doubt the good cop/bad cop routine is going to work on them.

Pumping food up someone's anus, locking them in a coffin-sized box and threatening to murder their family isn't "a minimal amount of discomfort."

[TDAS04]

I thought it would be higher. 

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Again, I am not convinced at all that anyone in the Republican Party are actually the good Christians that they pretend to be.

On the flip side, the rather high acceptance among Democrats for many of these methods of torture shows us that many Democrats aren't as liberal, progressive, and caring for people as they pretend to be.

"1 in 5 Democrats Agree: Cheney and Bush were right for waterboarding suspected terrorists! And 40% say brutally assaulting them is a-ok as well!"

The door swings both ways. The high numbers for Republicans don't just excuse the Democrats who agreed with them. Torture, war, and violence by the U.S. government has been normalized since 9/11, and while Republicans are certainly more guilty of supporting it, that normalization also hits your party as well. You can't just ignore that.

[pbrower2a]

Again, I am not convinced at all that anyone in the Republican Party are actually the good Christians that they pretend to be.

Republicans will have the majority in both Houses of Congress. They will have plenty of opportunity to denounce torture in principle. They can distance themselves from the crimes of the Rove/Cheney/Bush administration. Adequate rejection of torture includes such simple statements as "This is all wrong, ineffective, and un-American".

[All Along The Watchtower]

A lot of Republicans don't really seem to care about the dignity and human rights of people so I'm not surprised.

The pro-life party

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I think it's more disturbing that a majority of Democrats don't support any of the methods.

Why?

How are we supposed to interrogate effectively if we can't cause a minimal amount of discomfort for the detainees? A terrorist knows they aren't getting released, I doubt the good cop/bad cop routine is going to work on them.

What does it mean to "interrogate effectively"?

Interrogating in which ever way necessary to best get the information out of that particular individual.