The World According to a Bush Voter

From AlterNet courtesy of This Modern World:

Do the supporters of President Bush really know their man or the policies of his administration?

Three out of 4 self-described supporters of President George W. Bush still believe that pre-war Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or active programs to produce them. According to a new survey published Thursday, the same number also believes that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein provided "substantial support" to al Qaeda.

But here is the truly astonishing part: as many or more Bush supporters hold those beliefs today than they did several months ago. In other words, more people believe the claims today –- after the publication of a series of well-publicized official government reports that debunked both notions.

And

Remarkably, when asked whether the U.S. should have gone to war without evidence of a WMD program or support to al Qaeda, 58 percent of Bush supporters said no. Moreover, 61 percent said they assumed that Bush would also not have gone to war under those circumstances.

"To support the president and to accept that he took the U.S. to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about pre-war Iraq," Kull says.

He added that this "cognitive dissonance" could also help explain other remarkable findings in the survey. The poll also found a major gap between Bush's stated positions on a number of international issues and what his supporters believe Bush's position to be. A strong majority of Bush supporters believe, for example that the president supports a range of international treaties and institutions that the White House has vocally and publicly opposed.

Click here for the rest.

What this article doesn't state, I already know from experience: many of these deluded people are quite intelligent. That makes having some sort of rational discussion about Iraq and Bush nearly impossible--some of these Bush supporters are as good as political pundits at taking a bit of information wildly out of context, or giving them far more importance than they actually have, in order to "prove" their points.

I'm not sure what it means when so many Americans perceive themselves as living in a totally different reality, but I do know that this will probably come to no good end. I'm afraid that things are going to get much, much worse for our country before they get better. I mean, I'm really starting to fear some sort of civil war ten years or so down the road.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$