The GOP Psyche: An Explainer
"The GOP believes they’re patriots and the stewards of free markets. Once that belief collides with facts, like conservative policies asphyxiating the middle class, they have to make it the fault of an enemy. Meaning: To Republicans a Democratic twice elected (by huge margins) President has to be a foreign Muslim treasonous dictator whose economic policies are killing us all because otherwise everything they’ve ever held true is a lie.
This explains why Republicans have to be against anything proposed by the man the Heritage Foundation’s president, Jim DeMint, hilariously calls our Imperial President. Unilaterally giving federal janitors a raise doesn’t exactly make one Darth Vader unless your own sense of self is in a death grip.
In cognitive dissonance theory, proof doesn’t matter in self-perception. History can be revised to gel with belief."
