http://www.redstate.com/...
evidently from
http://www.spot-on.com/...

by Josh Trevino.

Yes, it's pretty much what you'd expect - selected quotes and thoughts below the fold.

There are a lot of otherwise rational Republicans out there making bad decisions. No matter what happens, they seem to find some way to justify it; they find ways to say torture is OK, being lied into war is OK, violating the constitution is OK. For a while, I wondered what it would take to get them to realize where that was leading us - just how far "their" party would have to go to get them to actually stand up.

Now I realize that, without our help, that will never happen.

The problem is the slippery slope, the foot in the door, the rabbit hole - whatever metaphor suits you fancy. The problem is the logical disconnect, the cognitive dissonance forcing them to stay the course, no matter how misguided it is. The problem is their clear distance from reality.

We can help them, though.
What we need is a National Day of Reflection.

More on the flip.

Which part of your brain do you vote with? Do you strive for reason or emotion? Planning or memory? Empathy or fear? Maybe you're not alone.

Our brains are beautiful things, even more complex than our convoluted political system. If you write a book about Bush's, you may end up on the no fly list. If you try to figure out your own, you may just improve yourself.

Here's a shocker: partisan thought is unconscious. A recent study (NYT article) shows particular regions of neural activation involved in that act of politico-cognitive dissonance.

One might even go out on a limb and hypothesize further about the role of cognition on politics... more below the fold.

I felt the urge to post something today after having two very different but equally surprising conversations. One left me disappointed; the other gave me hope.

More on the flip...