Cognitive Dissonance

I am constantly amazed at how inconsistent most Rethuglicans are. Truly amazed. Astounded that they not only vote against their own self-interests, but even the elected “leaders” are seemingly unaware of reality.

I’m going to show you two maps, and I’m not going to say anything about them until you take a good hard look at them.

Ready? The top map is from 1970, and the bottom map is from 2022. What they show is the amount of money that comes from Federal Government transfers. Like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and Veterans Benefits. Here is the key:

Yup - more than 50% of all counties in the US have residents with more than 25% of their income coming from the government.

Elected Rethuglicans want to decrease, or even cease, a lot of these payments. And a lot of the people who ELECT these malcontents vote for them. If we do a deep dive into individual counties, we’ll see that the more rural counties, and the counties with lower annual incomes are more dependent on government monies than richer counties. All the details here.

Here are two counties in Pennsylvania. Chester is the richest county in the state, and Forest is one of the most needy.

The math is brutal. If Social Security payments are decreased in 2034 by 20% (which is the minimum decrease projected if nothing is done Congressionally), in Chester County (using current dollars) the total income of $101,050 will fall by $1,961, and in Forest County, total income $28,009 will fall by $2,683.20. Now, those numbers are somewhat inaccurate because the transfers include more than Social Security payments, but I think you can imagine how brutal it will be for people who depend on a lot of their income coming from the government.

And yet, guess which is a blue county, and which is a ruby red county. Admittedly, they are different in size, but you get the idea. If you want to see data about your county, click here.

These are the aggregated voting records for Chester and Forest counties. To spare you the deep dive into the details, know that while a few Chester County towns are red, the overall election outcome data for the county is diametrically opposed to the election outcomes across Forest County.

So here’s where we’re at. The Rethuglican party is dependent on poorer, more rural, less educated, underemployed voters, who, let’s be honest, receive their benefits from the richer, more urban/suburban, better educated, employed voters in blue areas. The same people they want to make life much worse for.

The REASON that so much of the country is dependent on government transfers is two-fold. First, real wages have not been rising at a rate to keep incomes where they should be. Second, the population is aging, meaning more people on Social Security and Medicare.

Since the time of Ronnie Raygon and Gordo Norquist, the GOP has told people that the reason wages aren’t going up, and jobs are “disappearing”, is because jobs are being taken by people of color (they use other, incorrect, terms) and women. They lay blame on all sorts of people who haven’t done anything wrong, fail to mention the globalization they have pushed for, and the corporate tax cuts THEY IMPLEMENTED that enriched shareholders and veritably stole income from workers.¹ They have claimed that unions are BAD. They have steadfastly refused to even consider the types of solutions that would easily shore up Social Net programs. Within the past several weeks, they have even voted against FEMA monies that are desperately needed by their own districts.

And yet, these morons keep voting for them.

I have tried. Honestly, I HAVE TRIED to understand why all of these people vote for MAGA candidates, especially the Convicted Felon. I have listened intently to focus groups. I have watched interviews. I have read polls (yeah, I don’t believe them, but I’m as addicted to the crosstabs as all the other political junkies). I have tried to understand the adherence to the cult.

But mostly, I think these people are just plain stupid.

I attribute this to the fact that most people cannot undertake critical thinking, and that they do not think things through. These are skills that need to be taught. I do NOT believe that people are born stupid. Statistically, most people are average. That means they can acquire various skill sets. Most people COULD learn critical thinking, and could learn to think things through. But, as a society, the US does not value these things. And thus, a lack of these skills does not get passed down from generation to generation.

Think I’m wrong? Think I’m joking?

[A] Harris Poll of 3,000 children, between the ages of 8 to 12, conducted for the LEGO Group in 2019, revealed that “YouTuber” was the first choice of 29% of them. And, it wasn’t exactly a one-off. That survey closely followed on the heels of a similar poll of 1,000 children, aged 6 to 17, conducted in 2017 by U.K.-based travel company First Choice, which also found that as many as 52% of the young respondents were looking forward to YouTube-based careers.

Lots of people aspire to being sports stars, movie stars, famous singers/performers. And let’s not forget “Influencers.”

Where are the Rethuglican parents (and current voters) pushing their kids into meaningful careers? OH YEAH! They didn’t THINK. They didn’t instill values in their kids. They didn’t guide them. Perhaps they are so wrapped up in placing blame and feeling wronged that they forgot what parents are supposed to do for their kids.

This election is, in many ways, going to depend on whether the side of truth and light can energize and deploy enough people who care about democracy and women’s health, or whether the stupid side (the fear and loathing side) will win.

It’s one of those days.

1. By decreasing corporate taxes, the difference is made up by payments from individuals. As our tax system has become much less progressive than it used to be, this means less take home pay for most workers, regardless of their gross income. (Except the really rich.)