Adrian Arroyo observed that writing about odd American beliefs about politics would benefit from some context. According to Gallup, lots of Americans believe lots of weird stuff:
What’s more, that’s not just a group of overlapping people. Instead “A special analysis of the data shows that 73% of Americans believe in at least one of the 10 items listed above, while 27% believe in none of them. A Gallup survey in 2001 provided similar results — 76% professed belief in at least one of the 10 items.” I’ll admit that I’m a lot more open to the view that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim than to the view that the spirits of dead people can return in certain situations.