I wrote this then decided not to publish, then read Red State Blues and decided that maybe it's worth 2cents.
We frequently hear people asking variations of "How can anyone be supporting Bush?," and "Why hasn't Kerry attained a greater lead in the polls?" While there are many possible explanations (if one assumes that these are legitimate questions) here's my take as a clinical psychologist.
The anger and divisiveness resulting from the manner in which Bush "won" the 2000 election temporarily evaporated when the country united behind Bush following 911. Our Bush anger was transformed to Bin Laden anger and we sought retribution. Bush gave us a means of fulfilling that need by going after Al Queda in Afghanistan. Had Bush stayed on this task and clearly destroyed Bin Laden et al. the world and the election would be in a much different place today. But Bush did not keep his promise to exact our need for revenge and veered off onto a questionable course. The rest is history.
Bush supporters, the 10-20 percent that would not unquestioningly follow him into hell, have been confronted with a series of events and challenges to his leadership for the past two and one half years that may have begun to take a toll. For some time this group of supporters have been able to deny the reality of Bush's actions as well as the legitimacy of the negative evaluations coming from detractors. But denial and cognitive dissonance use a lot of mental and emotional energy and the more that must be denied the more energy that must be expended. A point is reached where fatigue sets in and we become anxious, depressed and angry. At first we blame those confronting us with dissonant information for how we are feeling, but if these inputs continue and increase, a point may be reached where our defenses break down and we have an "ah ha" emotional crisis. We suddenly realize why we are feeling the way we are and confront
reality. We become angry with the source of our original beliefs and also with ourselves for being so gullible.
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