The Usual Suspects

According to numerous New York Times/ABC News polls, roughly one in three Americans, time and again, say "the war in Iraq is going well." Not only that, these same folks "say things in the United States are generally going well right now, putting them at odds with the views of seven in ten Americans, who say the country has veered off on the wrong track."

It should come as no surprise that these plucky few, the bizarrely optimistic, "are solidly supportive of President Bush and overwhelmingly Republican." As the Times piece from which I drew these statistics noted, "Who they are is the easy part." It then posited, however, "Why they think what they do is considerably more complicated."

No, it's not.

These imbeciles were raised by wolves. Which is to say, they were deprived of loving human contact as little ones (linguist George Lakoff remains the keenest resource on this: see his Moral Politics), and now the wolf-rearing philosophy of every wolf pack for itself is their normative course in life. So naturally they're drawn to the "We're-all-in-this-alone" Republican Party and its top snarling dog, George W. Bush. The man simply can do no wrong in their eyes.

The Times story put me in mind of an article I wrote for TomPaine.com back in April 2000, titled "A New Theory of American Politics: One Out of Three of Us Can Usually Be Counted on to Be Negative." You will note the year -- 2000 -- which is important. A Democrat, you see, happened to occupy the White House at the time, so all was gloom and doom for this peculiar minority of one-third. The same people who today see nothing but roses popping out of George W.'s ass -- notwithstanding his seven years of unremitting fiscal and foreign disasters -- then believed that Bill Clinton's eight years of peace and prosperity were an unbearable burden on the Republic.

Today they're the indefatigably sanguine. Yesterday they were the indefatigably morose. The party label slapped on the White House was, and is, the only discernible variable.

They -- this once crotchety, now untroubled Third -- didn't even wait for Clinton's first term to really get underway. They knew beforehand how bad things would be; indeed, how bad things already were: "31 percent of Americans ... said on February 14, 1993 -- just twenty-four days after Bill Clinton took office -- that they disapproved of the way the president was doing his job," recalled my TomPaine piece. "Bill barely had time to get the height adjusted on his swivel chair and one out of three Americans already despised his track record."

If you'd like an even better read into the mind of this lupine Third of Americans, here are a couple more stats -- again, from the TomPaine piece: "32 percent believed the government 'will go too far' in making homosexuality acceptable (acceptable to whom is unclear) and that the National Rifle Association had the 'right amount of influence' over gun control laws...."

Want more? "Employing dubious means of critical analysis, 36 percent said the federal government should reduce its investment in school districts that fare poorly in standardized tests, while 28 percent with even more dubious humanity said the feds had no responsibility in alleviating poverty."

Hell, even wolves of the four-legged variety aren't that heartless.

I have no doubt that Susan Brand of Burnsville, Minnesota, was one of the crotchety Third in 1998. But today? "I just think George W. Bush is doing a good job with Iraq and everything else," Ms. Brand told the Times. "He’s a straight up Republican. He says things are going well there."

And that's that. Mind closed, case closed.

The Times story proceeded to a limited exploration of the psycho-politically occult, reporting that "cognitive dissonance is playing out for some people in favor of Mr. Bush." Explained a UC-San Diego professor who specializes in political delusion: "As long as he projects optimism, they are willing to dismiss the mainstream media as biased."

Cognitive dissonance? I'd call it cognitive shutdown. Yet there's nothing to be done for folks of this breed -- except maybe zap them back to the future, and this time raise them among loving, caring, rational and empathetic humans.

Comments

[Judith]

These statistics from the Surgeon General's office website might explain most of those Congnitive dissonators.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter2/sec2_1.html

he current prevalence estimate is that about 20 percent of the U.S. population are affected by mental disorders during a given year. This estimate comes from two epidemiologic surveys: the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study of the early 1980s and the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) of the early 1990s. Those surveys defined mental illness according to the prevailing editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (i.e., DSM-III and DSM-IIIR). The surveys estimate that during a 1-year period, 22 to 23 percent of the U.S. adult population—or 44 million people—have diagnosable mental disorders, according to reliable, established criteria. In general, 19 percent of the adult U.S. population have a mental disorder alone (in 1 year); 3 percent have both mental and addictive disorders; and 6 percent have addictive disorders alone.3 Consequently, about 28 to 30 percent of the population have either a mental or addictive disorder

[liquified viscera]

Unfortunately, by blaming the Republicans as you have here, you lose all credibility.

First, it is impossible to be even close to accurate when you accuse all Republicans of ANYthing other than being Republicans.

Second, the current situation in America was enabled by Democrats at every turn. So no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you want it to be true, the facts indicate that it is NOT all the fault of the Republicans. Rather, the Democrats have been completely complicit, and therefore they share in the blame.

Check out the definition of "confirmation bias" and then ask yourself whether that might be happening in your essay about Republicans.

[Realist]

On the obverse, seven years of blaming the Democrats for the current train wreck underway costs the Republicans all of their credibility.

The point of the article, and of the first comment, is that about one-third of the nation is disconnected from reality. I personally attribute that to those who are "faith-based", meaning that they choose to believe what they are told without question, whether they are religious or not. It is my subjective experience with such folk that I feel reinforces the proposition of the support for Bush (essentially and uniformly Republican) being from those for whom reality is an insurmountable intellectual difficulty.

[K. Balasubramanian]

There are very few republicans OR democrats among the "representatives" OF THE PEOPLE. Most of them represent corporations.
It's class war at its finest --- ( it's not just Iran that's in the cross-hairs, it's america too ) ---

That said, why insult wolves ?

[Vinnie From Indy]

It cannot be stressed enough that Americans are being subjected to an enormous amount of propaganda and lies by the small group that controls most mass media in this country. A percentage of that 30% consumes unadulterated propaganda and lies form the likes of Limbuagh and Hannity etc. Another percentage of that 30% are swayed more artfully by the rest of the media establishment. The New York Times, The Wash. Post, CNN, USA Today-Gannett, AP and the rest have engaged in a conscious effort to deceive average Americans on dozens of issues.

One need look no further than the almost instant belief by so many Americans that Saddam had a role in 9/11. While that number is down to the 30% now, at one time it was in the 60% range. That event did not happen through magic. The reason so many believed it is because that is what they were being told by artful propagandists of mainstream media.

[David Pike]

If Vinnie From Indy believes the msm was responsible for 60% of Americans believing Saddam had a role in 9/11, who does he believe is responsible for his contention that 70% no longer believe that to be true?

[TMJ]

Vinnie raises an interesting point but David seems to be dismissing it under a false premise. The change does not represent a repentant or suddenly responsible corporate media but probably has more to do with the rise in use of alternative news sources. Those 30% who still do believe such blatant nonsense are the same discussed in the essay. Recent polls suggest that distrust of the corporate media has steadily increased with internet usage. Correlation is not necessarily causation but it should not be dismissed out of hand.

[Joseph Conrad]

Judith and other Republican Americans, did you know the US has FINANCED, ARMED & TRAINED EVERY 'MUSLIM EXTREMIST GROUP' SINCE THE 1950'S?

Did you know the US Financed, Armed and Trained Every Group in Overthrowing EVERY Democratically
Elected Nationalist Government in EVERY NATION in S. America, the Middle East, Africa, Central America and Asia?

We are now trying to overthrow IRAN because it has the same Nuclear Capability as the US GAVE INDIA, ISREAL & PAKISTAN!. Oh yes, Judith. Let us not forget Venezuala! If the US could nail him & TAKE HIS NATION'S OIL & GAS LIKE ITS DOING IN IRAQ, Bush-Cheney would do it!

So you don't make ill-informed comments in the future, Iraq was the Wealthiest, most stable, Most Integrated & Intermarried Sunni-Shia Nation on the PLANET till Bush and BushBabY DESTROYED IT!

Guess you Republicans can't STAND Integration OR Intermarriage CAN YOU? Don't worry...Only a deaf, blind and stupid Republican could see your point of view - and accept it!

[L. Fleming]

David Pike "Vinnie raises an interesting point but David seems to be dismissing it under a false premise. The change does not represent a repentant or suddenly responsible corporate media but probably has more to do with the rise in use of alternative news sources."

I tend to think that the change in public opinion about the war is more a matter of reality sinking in than anything else. Even for the powerful corporate media, it's hard to keep pretending that the unmitigated disaster in Iraq only needs a little more "resolve' to see it through to "victory."

On the other hand, the media offensive to sell the surge has resulted in an uptick in public belief that Iraq is a war "we just might win" and etc.

As Lincoln probably never said, you can fool some of the people all of the time ( that would be Bush's 30% base) and some of the people some of the time. The second group is being fooled yet again.

[Freedem]

You can add a few more studies beyond Lakoff.

I wrote a Blog about that very principal at http://freedemocrat.blogspot.com/2007/04/generation-of-monsters.html
Child abuse and other trauma does appear to me to be a common theme, and the mental dysfunction noted in http://patternsthatconnect.blogspot.com/2006/03/rightwing-authoritarianism-and.html is by its very dysfunction a pathology.

Getting from there to a political way of dealing with it is real challenge. Beyond common awareness of the nature of the problem I do not have any easy solutions.

[Pat W]

Not much is being said about the millions of Americans who are functionally illiterate. More than fifty years of tinkering with reading programs that deprive 40% of our children of adequate instruction on how to decipher the printed word contributes mightily to this ignorance.

[Judith]

Joseph Conrad, You have me confused with the poster after me who is 'liquified viscera' and who I believe you were responding to. My post is the first one, about the Surgeon General's mental health site and cognitive dissonance. By the way, yes I do know those things and I'm a liberal progressive Democrat.

[David Pike]

L. Fleming. Could we now hope that some meaningful part of the 60% will not be again mislead by the msm because of "...the rise in use of alternative news sources."? Hope so.

[Melissa]

Bill Clinton was one of the elite too,I am sorry to say. He bombed Iraq every other day for his entire term in office. He was just a more pleasant brute than the psychopath in office today. As we have seen recently, the Democrats will not save us. We are heading for a facist/feudal state unless we stop these sociopaths now.