Sunday, February 5, 2012

Romney's reliance on cognitive dissonance

NOW THAT MCMITT has twirled himself as the principal dancer in the Republican spin to the convention, a few questions still remain unanswered. I refer to Number Three in the Grumpy Laws of Political Dissonance which, until now, argued that two conflicting ideas cannot occupy the same human skull at the same time.

For example, it has long been shown by Newton or somebody that two masses cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That's true of ideas, too - even the subatomic weightless ones that Mr. Romney has been casting about. (So have some of his fellow-Republicans like John Boehner. But does anybody really think that he counts for anything these days?) Look at it this way: Can you believe that a door is both locked and unlocked at the same instant? Or be confident that your checkbook will precisely balance while conceding that it never has when you receive the statement? Tell me I'm wrong, folks!

With McMitt, he will confidently tell you that although he agrees the economy is improving, President Obama has made it worse. Or that even though Osama bin Laden is dead, we're finally out of Iraq and the president was absolutely correct on Libya, Obama has been a total failure on foreign policy. (I prefer Joe Biden's trenchant view that "Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

There's a fancy term for Romney's blustery contradictory thoughts: cognitive dissonance. If you agree, the remainder of this dreadfully long campaign will be fun.

P.S. Today newspapers carried a photo of McMitt, in his designer jeans and open- collar white shirt casually walking somewhere with his grandchildren. He is trying so hard to be a "regular" ($250 million) guy, don't you think? His tactic would be more persuasive if I saw him standing in a long line at a supermarket checkout clutching a fistful of discount coupons on Super Bowl Sunday.


4 comments:

PJJinOregon said...

If you see McMitt carrying coupons to the grocery store checkout, look behind him in line. There you'll find McNewt with a fist full of food stamps.

Maybe designer jeans and pristine white shirts for Romney are the political equivalent of Dubya clearing brush from a barbed wire fence with a chain saw. A bit over the top, don't you think?

Mencken said...

Let's not forget two American classics, Mike Dukakis in the M1 Abrams tank, and a camo clad, bloodied John Kerry goose hunting just days before the election.

Until America continues to define leadership as nothing more than something that involves guns, tanks, chainsaws, or aircraft carriers, we're going to gets steady stream of these sheep in wolf's clothing.

By pretending to be everyone, they become two dimensional avatars. I may be high with the number of dimensions.

Grumpy Abe said...

Ah, yes. The real aircraft carrier...the stage for a president in full flight uniform who never served a day of active duty. As kids, we were satisfied to play with erector sets as substitutes for realitiy.

David Hess said...

Even conservative Republicans are commenting about his cognitive dissonance, to the point that 40 pct. or more of them refuse to vote for him even when the other choices are absurd.