Proud Member Of "The Glenn Greenwald Left" Here.

[Maedhros]

218. It's cognitive dissonance, DirkGently.

Last edited Wed Jul 24, 2013, 09:35 AM - Edit history (1)

On the one hand, they may actually be liberals (I have my doubts, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt). They may actually be opposed to unchecked executive power, indefinite detention, collateral murder, execution without due process, blanket surveillance and a rampant military industrial complex.

However, as much as they might like to think of themselves as "liberal," they identify much more as "Democrats," and they HATE THE REPUBLICANS. Hate them with every fiber of their beings, to the degree that this hatred is the sole defining element of their political philosophy. When they vote, they are voting AGAINST the thing that they hate.

Thus, Obama presents a problem. On the one hand, he is an African American President that drives the Republicans nuts - and they love him for that. President Obama represents a gigantic "FUCK YOU!" to the racist tea-bagging Right. On the other he has perpetuated, expanded and normalized the absolute worst policies of the Bush Administration. It's hard to reconcile these two facts and maintain the Blue vs. Red paradigm in one's mind.

So they gather together in their echo chamber to celebrate the positive things Obama has done, and instinctively lash out against any who remind them of the horrible things for which Obama is responsible. Supporting Obama and the Democrats must be the solution. Any argument that suggests that they are part of the problem must therefore be ignored or silenced. By their reckoning any criticism of the Administration, regardless of how legitimate it may be, only strengthens the Republicans and that can't be allowed.

I have a good friend who is like this - he's been a loyal Democrat all his life, and he was so devastated by eight years of Bush malfeasance that he has a desperate, pathological need for "us' to destroy and humiliate "them." He's pretty much given up hope that things can get better, and is only intending to slow down the headlong rush to a disaster he's already accepted. Any mention of drone murder or indefinite detention or torture or other Administration wrongdoing is met with a shrug and a "meh" - it's nothing new, it's always been thus, every Republic collapses into Emprire, etc. However let some obscure Republican Senator drop some red-meat rhetoric at a campaign rally and he's frothing at the mouth in a raging frenzy.