I don't know if I understand this even as a political tactic.
Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were invited to the White house to speak with President Obama on finding a way forward with the jobs bill, the economy and the Health Care bill. And immediately after leaving the White House, while still on the White House lawn, basically told the President to go fuck himself.
It's like having a little kid you've told not to touch the crystal vase on the mantle and he IMMEDIATELY goes and touches the vase, breaks it and then when asked why he did the exact opposite of what you just asked, responds "...I don't know." And Boehner still moaning about the amount of pages in any particular bill is just infuriating.
It's this obstructionism being reverberated in the echo chamber that is Fox News which causes so much confusion and disinformation to have Republicans and conservatives frothing at the mouth when it comes to anything, ANYTHING that may be critical of their party.
Take for example the comments section in Oliver Willis' blog post about the "Miss Me Yet?" George bush billboard in Wyoming.
"Anyone else notice that the home foreclosures started the same year the Democrats took over Congress? " As if there was no precursor for this problem. If they started the same year, that means the problem happened beforehand.
"one last thing it wasnt a surplus @ the end of clintons term he was .8% over GDP" Uh, yeah. "Over" means surplus. "Under" means deficit.
"In the current wars we are fighting – you know the ones that BO was going to stop? – BO has had the most US soldiers killed by a wide margin." Really? Seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan and Obama has already caused more military dead? Fine. Pull them out. But then he would be weak on national security, right?
"All informed and intelligent people realize that W will go down in history as one of the best presidents we have ever had the good fortune to enjoy." ...How can you argue with someone who truly believes that?
And my personal favorite: "Bush inherited 911 but I never heard him whine or blame Clinton (even though Clinton and Gore played patty-cake with Al-Qaeda for years)."
Bush inherited 9/11. But we all know where that came from.
And there is the crux of the problem. You can't have a reasoned debate or policy argument when the other side doesn't even agree on the facts. Solid, documented, hard facts. If they believe President Obama is tripling the debt in his first year, If they believe more soldiers have been killed under Obama's first year than Bush's eight years, if they believe Bush inherited 9/11, for God's sake, then there's no sense in debating them because they will refuse to believe the truth even when shown documented proof. Even simple things like, oh, let's say, a calendar!
The the current crop on the GOP side in Congress is no different. Rachel Maddow sums it up nicely here.
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