George Bush’s Cognitive Dissonance

Noah Millman at Gideon’s Blog:

…I was finally convinced that Bush has no idea how his agenda fits together, and that he doesn’t care. Which was very depressing for me. I know Bush is capable of tying his preferred policy mix together into a coherent bundle, because he did it in 2000. He did not do it this year. So far as I can tell, what Bush *really believes* is: (a) he stands for freedom and low taxes and against big government spending; (b) whenever and wherever someone is hurting, it’s government’s job to move, and deficits don’t matter. No one can honestly and coherently believe both these things at once, but after his speech, I’m convinced Bush does. It’s not just a matter of necessary political compromise. This is what he believes. Very depressing.



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