Can anyone please tell me how the Republican brain functions in the real world? Or how they get smart, thinking people to support their policies? Because never have I encountered a mindset so riddled with cognitive dissonance and a total lack of logic.
According to Allen Clifton at Forward Progressives, ?Cognitive dissonance is the brain’s inability to handle two conflicting realities, so it creates an alternate one which often defies actual reality.?
Examples are, unfortunately, all too frequent and pervade their entire platform:
- They maintain that they want to prepare our students for success in college or careers, yet they insist on inserting ?creation science? (what an oxymoron) and watering down coverage of climate change in science textbooks.
- They champion ?no government intrusion,? but then jump right in and impose medically unnecessary restrictions to a woman’s ability to get an abortion. They create rules, under the guise of ?Voter ID,? that make it harder to vote. They pass laws that make it illegal to marry a same-sex partner.
- Their policies say, ?You must give birth to a baby wanted or?unwanted, but if you need public assistance to get prenatal care or to help raise said child, you’re on your own.?
- They rail about the cancellation of existing health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act, but they won’t lift a finger to come up with a universal healthcare plan of their own. Prior to the ACA, insurance companies cancelled policies of millions of Americans when they got sick. Where was the Republican outrage then?
- They ?proudly support the military,? but don’t provide our veterans the health care they earned and deserve. I recently saw a meme that captured this lack of logic perfectly. ?Republicans are pro-military the same way they are pro-life. While you are in, they claim to care about you. Once you are out, your well-being is no longer a concern.? (Meme credit to Marian Domanksy Fisher).
- They ?reduce government spending? by cutting $9 billion in food stamp assistance, but in the same bill, maintain billions in farm subsidies to their colleagues.
- They howl about the President’s birthplace while staying completely silent on the Canadian birth certificate of Sen. Ted Cruz.
- They exhort poor people to work harder and get better jobs (with insurance!) but then cut education spending and refuse to raise the minimum wage.
I know many intelligent people who have bought into this line, and I do not understand how. I wish I did, but I don’t.
Edited/Published by: SB
