It goes much much deeper than that. For instance, look at these polls: http://www.tipponline.com/#zeitgeist Among independents and Democrats they choose "too close to call" as the likely outcome of the election. However, among Republicans its clearly Bush, very few (and shrinking?) thinks Kerry can win. Again, unflappable beliefs to the point of religious faith. Some of these hardcore unflappable beliefs may be true, but many cannot, and therefore are only delusions.
This is truely alarming, and apparently Bush himself is infected. This superferverous belief system was not in place when Reagan was in office; he eventually realized the problems of his plan and raised taxes (how many Republicans can you get to realize that?
), but Bush is of course totally unyielding whereas Bush I and Reagan yielded.And even more amazing is the utter unbreakable belief of the correctness of their ideology. Yes, how many times have you met a Republican on who absolutely believes that what they believe is unrefutably true? No doubts in their minds at all. I've seen them all over the internet. Any sort of welfare program is "socialism/communism," or needs massive crippling taxes, when that is not necessarily from true. Bush somehow isn't to blame for all the massive spending that happening (:D). All the deficits can be removed by cutting "wasteful spending," cutting social programs, etc., even to the point of denigration and a total unacknowledgement of the people who benefit from them. More importantly, having a minimum of social programs, small government, moral repression, its the Democrats fault even when Republicans are in control, etc., are all absolutely true, no doubts are all. They don't even question the validity of their beliefs. I've seen what appears to be a very smart person suddenly turn around and spew out the same thing over and over again even if those points have been repeated pointed out that as false directly to them. And of course this extends to science: Global warming isn't real (I've had many arguments with fools that still argue this), evolution is "unproven," you know what I'm getting at.
These things form a totally warped view of the world that is far from accurate, and many Republicans are unflappably unmoving, even delusional, about them. Some of these things have a 1984 quality to them, like when Bush was mocking Kerry as a "flip-flopper" and get huge cheers, then when he shifts to a "too liberal" charge they cheer just the same, even though thats rather contradictory. Same with all his nonsensical statements on terrorism and misquotes of the opponent. My question is this: Why the fuck is this the way it is?
I suspect it's the rise of the Conservative Media (capitalization intentional). I'm not talking about the media at large, I'm talking about the part that is the conservative part, like Foxnews, conservative talk radio, conservative newspapers like NYPost, Washington Times, etc. These things are even remotely objective, they're absolutely onesided and uncompromisingly biased. It's for all pratical purposes propaganda, lies and delusions told to period in order to convince them of believing something not necessarily true, real truth be damned. The other half is the rise of Christian fundamentalism, which I find just as dangerous as Islamic fundamentalism. Any other guesses on the utter unflappable delusions of Republicans and what can be done about it?
Editor's Note: Talon Karride is shown the door here, on Page 5.
But more importantly, you can only reason someone out of a position he reasoned himself into in the first place. If he got there because of a combination of self-interest and loathing for the people who will be disadvantaged by it, you sure as well won't ever convince him to drop that position with such a feeble weapon as logic.
Kerry was just "pointing out" he had served. I suppose that's why he made it the focal point for his entire convention and early campaign cycle.
