Barack Obama’s Constant State of Cognitive Dissonance

indexOriginally posted at American Thinker.

Contradicting the faultless, albeit far-fetched image he has of himself, Barack Obama is a man harassed by truth. That’s why, judging from his inability to accept personal responsibility, Barack Obama must be living in a constant state of agitated cognitive dissonance.

The late Leon Festinger is the social psychologist who proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance. According to Festinger, until the person suffering with perceptual disharmony can find a way to justify wrong actions and decisions, it’s impossible to achieve a calm mental state, especially when those wrong actions and decisions challenge the way the cognitively dissonant individual sees himself.

That’s why placing the blame for his mistakes on others and attempting to avoid having to admit he’s not the sterling specimen he perceives himself to be is the only way Barack Obama can resolve the disharmony of perceptions and truth raging within his head.

In an interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker, entitled: “The Obama Tapes,” instead of owning up to being the radical, rigid ideologue that he is, Obama blames many factors other than himself for Washington DC’s gridlock and his powerlessness to “penetrate the Republican base.”

Besides standing against Obama’s left-wing plans for America, Republicans disposed to work with him have complained that the president seems unwilling “to reach across the aisle” to form coalitions by way of social interaction. That’s because he won, he’s right, and quite frankly he’s proven that he despises anyone who disagrees with him — just ask federally-indicted Dinesh D’Souza. Therefore, rubbing elbows with anyone besides Beyoncé and Jay-Z probably isn’t something Barack Obama feels inclined to do.

Nonetheless, Obama did acknowledge that there is “no doubt that personal relationships matter at the margins and can tip something over the finish line.” That’s why he blamed his daughters (if you can believe it) for his being unavailable to “tip” his bad policy “over the finish line.”

In other words, coalitions are built at cocktail parties, which demand something from the president that he’d rather not give, so his excuse is he’s busy at home tending to the kids. Clearly, Obama is convinced that his inability to successfully implement his agenda is not reflective of his incompetence or his refusal to compromise — it’s Sasha and Malia’s fault.

During the interview, Barack Obama’s desperate attempt to expunge discomfort from his personhood was further made manifest when he blamed his declining standing among the American people on a core group of Republican House members (code name: Tea Party members). The president accused House members from conservative districts of capitulating against their will to pressure from radical constituents that Obama believes view their representatives agreeing with him as “betrayal.”

How pathetic is it to see the leader of the free world attempting to subdue his cognitive dissonance by convincing himself that if not for pressure from voters, Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY) would otherwise be falling lockstep into dutiful compliance with Mr. Brilliant’s vision?

The pièce de résistance from the interview came when clownish Obama accused conservative media of creating an unfair “caricature” of him as a person removed from “reality.”

Bemoaning what he identifies as biased criticism coming from his adversaries, the president has convinced his cognitively dissonant self that he’s been unsuccessful because of:

[t]he inability of my message to penetrate the Republican base so that they feel persuaded that I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, but I’m somebody who is interested in solving problems and is pretty practical, and that, actually, a lot of the things that we’ve put in place worked better than people might think.

That’s right — Obama considers himself an innocent man, and the reason he’s the abysmal failure that he is, is because of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

If you want to talk mental distress, just wait until Obama spots Sean Hannity sitting next to Louie Gohmert (R-TX) at the State of the Union address.

President Obama must feel better believing that when he’s not playing 150 rounds of golf, on a $4 million vacation, or partying at the White House with millionaires and billionaires, were it not for the misrepresentations the right wing has imposed on him, uniting voters from conservative districts would be a piece of cake.

According to the president, “[a]s long as there’s that gap between perceptions of me within the average Republican primary voter and the reality, it’s hard for folks like John Boehner to move too far in my direction.”

Here’s the problem: there is no gap — for the average Republican, perception virtually matches reality.

So in Barack Obama’s bizarre world of ‘Everything is everyone else’s fault,’ if it weren’t for all the ingrates who don’t appreciate messianic resolutions, John Boehner would heartily agree with everything the president proposes.

Totally in denial, and after blaming everyone and everything but himself, Obama told The New Yorker that the “truth of the matter” is that “even when there were a lot of political risks involved,” he believes Democrats have been an extraordinarily cohesive group.

Obama told David Remnick, “I’d like to think that part of that is because the Democrats up on Capitol Hill that I have relationships with know that the things I’m fighting for are things they care deeply about, and that I have a genuine commitment to seeing them succeed.”

Evidently, the president has been so busy trying to alleviate the discomfort of cognitive dissonance that he hasn’t taken the time to notice that Democrats are abandoning him in droves over ObamaCare.

So, other than trying to resolve the discord in his mind created by the conflict between reality and the self-important perception he has of himself, what in tarnation was Barack Obama talking about?

596 Comments

  1. Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thank you, However I
    am having troubles with your RSS. I don’t understand the
    reason why I cannot join it. Is there anybody getting similar RSS issues?
    Anyone that knows the solution will you kindly respond?
    Thanx!!

  2. Hey would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m planning to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a hard time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
    P.S Apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

  3. Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide
    credit and sources back to your website? My blog is in the very same niche as yours and
    my visitors would genuinely benefit from some of the information you present here.
    Please let me know if this okay with you. Appreciate it!

  4. Howdy would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m looking to start my own blog soon but I’m having a difficult time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design and style
    seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
    P.S Sorry for being off-topic but I had to ask!

  5. Thanks for the marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you can be
    a great author. I will make sure to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back very soon. I want to encourage
    you continue your great posts, have a nice holiday weekend!

  6. Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you
    knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.

    I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and
    was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
    Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to
    your new updates.

  7. What i don’t understood is if truth be told how you are now
    not actually a lot more smartly-appreciated than you may
    be now. You’re very intelligent. You realize therefore significantly when it comes
    to this subject, produced me in my view believe it from numerous numerous angles.
    Its like women and men don’t seem to be involved except it is one thing to do with Girl gaga!

    Your personal stuffs excellent. At all times maintain it
    up!

  8. Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and
    gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell
    to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
    She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!

  9. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video
    to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about,
    why waste your intelligence on just posting videos
    to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to
    read?

  10. May I simply just say what a comfort to discover a
    person that really knows what they are talking about on the internet.
    You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
    More people must read this and understand this side of the story.
    I can’t believe you are not more popular given that you surely
    have the gift.

  11. Superb blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
    I’m hoping to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
    Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for
    a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely overwhelmed ..
    Any ideas? Thanks!

  12. Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids.
    I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She
    placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside
    and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back!

    LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

  13. I blog frequently and I really appreciate your content.
    This article has really peaked my interest. I’m going to
    book mark your website and keep checking for new details about once a week.

    I opted in for your RSS feed as well.

  14. Simply desire to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is just great and i could assume you are an expert on this subject.

    Well with your permission let me to grab your feed to keep
    updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please
    carry on the rewarding work.

  15. Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my
    comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing
    all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say wonderful blog!

  16. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who was conducting a little homework on this.
    And he in fact bought me dinner because I discovered
    it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanks for spending some time to discuss this matter here on your web page.

  17. Hey would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design and style seems
    different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
    P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

  18. Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter
    and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and
    screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.

    She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to Top