The perils of an uninformed electorate — Part MCXXVII

The latest national Harris Poll, conducted in the days after the Iraqi elections late last month, offered the kind of results that stopped being funny a long time ago.

* 64% believe Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up slightly from 62% in November).

* 47% believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six percentage points from November).

* 44% actually believe that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis (up significantly from 37% in November).

* 36% believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).

It’s been two years since the invasion, and stunning numbers of Americans are still accepting total nonsense as fact. Indeed, nothing’s changed in two years, with some of these percentages having gone up in recent months — for no apparent reason.

I’m prepared to place some of the blame on the White House, which has consistently played fast and loose with its Iraq-related claims, leading many to believe the cynical and deceptive spin coming from their elected leaders. That said, at some point, Americans are going to have start taking responsibility for being tragically uninformed about the most basic of facts.

The consequences of a system burdened by an uninformed electorate can, unfortunately, be severe.