Four More Years Of Cognitive Dissonance

The SMH has a good article today examining whether Bush & Co will be more restrained in this second term - after all, they have a crippling deficit, troops stretched to breaking point and zero credibility - or should we be expecting more of the same?

The general conclusion seems to be that mere reality is not going to get in the way of this administration. It sure didn't bother Bush's supporters:

"One of the lessons of this week's election is that Bush partisans across America invest an infinity of trust in what the President says, not what they see in the news. A study by the program on international policy attitudes at the University of Maryland found, for instance, that 72 per cent of Bush supporters polled in August still believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the time of the US-led invasion. And 55 per cent believed, incorrectly, that this was supported by the conclusions of the September 11 commission.

The program's director, Stephen Kull, explains: 'To support the President and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information.'"

Story here: Full steam ahead for America's empire.