Thank you, Jennifer Rubin, for explaining what I've experienced from the GOP - leaders, base, media mavens - for 7+ years. Cognitive dissonance. Yeah, baby!
In yesterday's Washington Post, she wrote:
The issue is no longer whether the GOP can win the 2016 election — few dispassionate observers on the right think so — but whether the GOP will suffer a party-ending wipeout. It is dawning on Republican candidates and elected officials that condemning racist remarks while supporting the racist candidate requires an unsustainable level of cognitive dissonance.
The challenge the GOP is facing isn't with its upper echelon - it's with a base that's become inured to a steady drum beat of cognitive dissonance. To them, it - not reason or at least a modicum of relatively clear thinking - is the comfortable, familiar norm. And, as they have been encouraged to feel, anything else is deeply deeply deeply suspect.
Am cracking up at Jennifer pointing out, "Suddenly, the press has figured out that contrary to the /GOP falls in line' narrative, a significant number of Republican heavyweights have not endorsed Trump or are un-endorsing him “ Ah, Ms. Rubin - you are very much a part of that press, very much one of the players responsible for the aggressive cluelessness gripping the GOP. As recently as a few days ago, you were writing about Republican establishment figures - no word about dissent brewing in the ranks. It was Politico that pointed out the party leaders who are on record as not intending to vote for Trump or have shied away openly backing him.
Here's the problem I see with even a suggestion that someone else is a better GOP presidential candidate. Cognitive dissonance.
Anti-Trumpanista Bill Kristol, who did such a crackerjack job promoting Sarah Palin as John McCain's vp, confides in her about "the possibility that the delegates vote their conscience & save the party from someone who won, after all, only a minority of the primary votes cast.”
She goes onto outline what's required for such an upset. A GOP consultant shares that even the attempt would require more backbone than we've seen from Republican leaders, motivated to mov WAY out of their comfort zone by an improbable wake-up call that a Trump candidacy is disaster for the party, that his election would be... unspeakable.
So, IF they summoned up the courage to attempt a convention coup, an inner circle of elite power brokers would have to get the RNC ules committee to introduce a "conscience” clause or another nifty device so pledged delegates could dump Trump on the first ballot. Maybe a conscience clause giving an okey-dokey allowing delegates to abstain from voting for or against. Which is sticky, because EXISTING Rule 16B requires the convention chair to count bound delegates as yea votes, even if they abstain. Oops...
Praise be, Mitt Romney's annual E2 gathering (as in "Experts & Enthusiasts," aka party elites) this week! Imagine the awesome new tactics for dislodging Donald Trump that could emerge from political insiders rubbing shoulders with mega donors. Trying to imagine Mitt as a new incarnation of Batman - not working. But would love to be a fly at the inner sanctum!
Ms. Rubin suggests taking note of whether House Speaker Paul Ryan, an E2 presenter, seems openly frustrated with the heir presumptive candidate. Will he acknowledge Trump as a bigot or hold fast to his premise that Trump might be awful for the country but he's the best choice (they hope) for advancing the GOP agenda.
She recommends keeping an eye on Nebraska's Sen. Ben Sasse, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump. He's declined all suggestions he make a stab at being an alternative candidate, but the big money folks will probably at least take a shot at pitching a offer he can't refuse.
The possible alternative that has me guffawing with uncontrolled laughter is the thought that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would be tempted to bolt from the Trump camp. Tom Cotton is as rigidly ideological as they come, the sort that would burn down the government rather than compromise on principle. She poses a wildly incoherent what-if ~ ~ Cotton risking his "short-term image with Arkansas voters for his long-term prospects as a leader, not a follower, in the conservative movement." Unless the presumed candidate goes totally off the rails, there is no way that Tom Cotton would compromise his ideological principles. Of all the disciplined, committed far right conservatives out there, Tom Cotton ranks #1.
Having tumbled to the reality that the GOP leadership is pulling away from their party faithful's anointed candidate, Jennifer Rubin considers all the possible angles, while forgetting her original premise - the Republican party's entrenched cognitive dissonance. Every one of her approaches to swapping another candidate for Donald Trump involves ultimate insiders, party leaders, elite member of the donor class. The very people that the base is convinced are worthless pond scum. They are Count Rugen to Trump's Inigo Montoya. What can Republican leaders & elite do to save their party from Donald Trump while retaining the good will & loyalty of their base?
They could point out the glaring problems that are obvious to a reasonable mind. They could paint a picture of how Trump could cost them the White House, Senate & even House, a possibility that would resonate with practical thinkers. They could weep over Democrats changing the tenor of the Supreme Court for a generation, something that would make pragmatic voters quake in their boots.
But the GOP base, which was once known for being well-educated & sound thinking, has been corrupted with cognitive dissonance. They think from their gut, distrust facts, and fear authority.
If you want an outstanding example of cognitive dissonance within the GOP, read Jennifer Rubin's article. Yes, she write, "Don’t expect a white puff of smoke coming from Park City to signal election of a new GOP candidate. The Vatican is far more powerful and better organized than any conservative grouping." But she focuses only on what the rich & mighty might try, with no comment about how the base would roar with rage at such a betrayal.
THAT is practically a textbook definition of cognitive dissonance!
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