27 October 2010

Cognitive Dissonance: A Republican Affliction

Where Republicans are concerned, I am not entirely certain how to regard them.  Obviously, they are utterly out of tune and, for the most part, unwitting dupes of huge international corporations with no loyalties other than to their own unrestrained growth and unregulated profiteering.

Maybe it's ignorance that causes otherwise, seemingly, rational human beings to forsake logic and take such outlandish positions or do so many deplorable things as do Republicans.  Ignorance?  Well maybe.  But, with the amount of real information available and easily accessible, mere ignorance does not quiet fit the description.  Well then, maybe willful ignorance?  You know, that's when someone refuses to allow facts, logic or reason to alter their mindset.  But, what I think best describes it is "cognitive dissonance".  That's when one knows the facts but just doesn't get it!  You know the type, someone who, for years, has been beating themselves on the noggin with a ball-peen hammer in expectation of curing a headache and who never succumbs to the obvious knowledge that they are the source of their own pain.  See!  Cognitive dissonance.

Either that, or the bozos are all, each and every damned one of them, dumber than a gunny sack filled with wet Neches river mud and muck!

But Shane you say, surely that doesn't apply to all Republicans, and, by the way, surely you must have some Republican friends.

To which, grinning my very best spider to the fly "gotcha" smirk, I reply.  Yes it does, and no I don't!

Certainly I know some Republicans, and even socialize with them on rare occasions, and can't help but regard some as acquaintances, but friends?  Hell no!  You see my friends don't try to cripple Medicare and undo health reform at the behest of Drug Oligarchs and Insurance Tsars.  My friends don't engage in race and gay baiting.  My friends don't try to vilify the President and undermine the will of the majority.  My friends try to build unity between all people rather than working to keep them apart and angry, afraid and mistrustful.  My friends don't try to force their narrow religious views upon society as a whole, and certainly recognize that religious expression can take many legitimate forms.

My friends do not view single working moms and dads, older Americans, the unemployed, and working families as leeches simply because they make use of the various social and economic safety nets we've put into place to offset the disparities of wealth created by a perniciously competitive economic system.  My friends do not try to rip asunder those safety nets in the spurious name of economic responsibility.

See, that's why I have no Republican friends.  The bastards are out to get me and I am not about to extend any sense of friendship to them.

Do those descriptions fit all Republicans?  Well, let me put it this way.  You bring to me one registered Republican in support of protecting Social Security as it is right now, preserving and improving Medicare, and extending unemployment benefits with free job retaining and relocation support to the unemployed and I will shake that new friend's hand in Nieman Marcus's window on Christmas Eve.

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