He can't help it. He's just irrational.
Remember how Obamacare was going to be a
massive "job-killer"? And how that really didn't happen? At all? So why are Republicans
still convinced it's destroying America?
"What do you mean it hasn't happened?" said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the new chairman of the House Budget Committee. "Have you talked to any businesses out there?"
"The predictions were correct in that it’s been one of the one of the slowest recoveries in history," said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). "It's done a lot of damage."
"It is a job-killer," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a conservative noted for being especially reasonable and clear-eyed.
"I'm reminded every day that Obamacare is a catastrophe, and a job-killer," said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who became infamous for shouting "You lie!" at President Barack Obama from the House floor during the president’s health care address to Congress in 2009.
You could chock it up to Republican politicians' propensity to lie, or to their need to have an excuse for their repeal obsession. But this article posits something psychological, a phenomena that has struck the GOP en masse: cognitive dissonance. It's a common occurrence. When we're confronted with a reality that sharply contrasts or denies a deeply held belief, it makes us uncomfortable. To alleviate that, we do one of two things—change our way of thinking to fit with the reality we're seeing, or double-down on our own beliefs, find some way to discount the new information or just simply refuse to acknowledge it. (Climate change denial, anyone?) Republicans now, more than 50 votes into repeal and
still running political campaigns on the premise, are stuck there now, says Elliot Aronson, the foremost expert on cognitive dissonance.
"These guys are so committed to the belief that Obama can't do anything right, and that Obamacare is socialism, that it would be very, very difficult for them to examine the data objectively," he said. […]
As far as how long it might take for Obamacare's elected prophets of doom to recant their predictions, Aronson offered one of his own.
"About as long as it takes for hell to freeze over, with global warming," he said.
It. Will. Never. End.