Thursday, November 2, 2017

On Being Sincerely Wrong - by Robert Ringer

I think it’s safe to say that nothing like the ugly verbal tirades aimed at President Trump by Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker has ever happened before in a major political party.  Can you imagine a couple of rogue Democrats trying a stunt like that aimed at Barack Obama?  They would have been banished to Mogadishu.

I’ve given a lot of thought to the Flake-Corker outbursts in an effort to try to understand their psyches, and I’ve concluded that it’s not so much a political issue but, rather, a psychological problem.  By psychological problem, I mean that I don’t believe either Flake or Corker are deranged or hateful, even though they may seem so to many observers.
In all honesty, I believe both men are sincere in their remarks about President Trump.  However, a person can be sincere and also be wrong.  Or, simply put, he can be sincerely wrong.

In other words, Flake and Corker sincerely believe that Donald Trump’s egotism, crudeness, and lack of verbal skills are more important than his determination to implement an agenda that puts America first.  They sincerely believe in incoherencies like George H.W. Bush’s “kinder, gentler America” and George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” (which, of course, is a redundancy), both which imply that America is a mean-spirited nation.

Above all, they sincerely believe in making nice to the Dirty Dems in an effort to win their approval.  They are seemingly oblivious to the fact that the Dirty Dems are determined to destroy any Republican who stands in the way of their desire for permanent control of the levers of power in Washington.  They sincerely do not understand that those on the Radical Left are so consumed by hatred and an arrogant sense of moral superiority that it’s impossible to placate them.

As we all know, progressivism is a mental disorder that can stem from many different causes.  For example, I actually believe there are some on the left who are sincerely misguided in their quest to help those they deem to be oppressed.
But there are also many lefties —e.g., Barack Obama, Horrible Hillary, and Eric Holder — who have zero interest in improving the lives of those who are impoverished or even those in the middle class.  Their sole motivation is money and power, and they are perfectly willing to lie, steal, cheat — and, yes, resort to violence, if necessary — in order to accomplish their ends.

However, I don’t believe that’s the case with Flake and Corker or millions of other angry progressives.  In most cases, it’s simply their belief that they are morally superior to the average person that is the main driver behind their words and actions.
Yes, Jeff Flake’s speech on the Senate floor was impressive (in an odd sort of way), but it reeked of self-righteousness.  It was no more moral than Barack Obama’s endless, lie-filled, sanctimonious lectures in which he scolds his enemies for being too “divisive.”  What chutzpah.  Oh, yes, and let us not forget his favorite piece of gibberish, “This is not who we are as Americans.”

Obama’s legendary divide-and-conquer rhetoric — e.g., “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends” and “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun” — is still fresh in the minds of those who are sincerely right.  They understand that the mantra “by any means necessary” is how Marxists justify their nefarious deeds.
It was quite an eye-opener when John McCain, who is almost always sincerely wrong, said of Obama on the 2008 campaign trail, “I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments, and I will respect him.”  Hmm … come to think of it, maybe I’m being too hard on McCain.  Maybe he wasn’t being sincere when he said something that ludicrous.

All this denial stuff even carries over to Michelle Obama.  Yes, I’m talking about the sweet former FLOTUS who once famously announced to the world, when hubby won the presidency without having to be inconvenienced by vetting, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my country.”

Then, when the country had had enough of her husband’s anti-freedom, anti-American, commie policies and took a pass on his puppet heir, Horrible Hillary, Michelle tearfully told Oprah, “We are feeling like what not having hope feels like.”  Not real literate, but, hey, what do you expect from an underprivileged Princeton graduate?

So what does all this have to do with Flake and Corker?  Plenty, because they, and millions of other Republicans like them, have been sincerely wrong about both Obamas as well as the true nature of the Dirty Dems for at least the past ten years.  Likewise, those who admire Flake and Corker for “having the courage to speak out” believe that those who support the kind of populism Donald Trump is promoting are sincerely wrong as well.

Of course, it’s all in the eyes of the beholder.  Hard-core populists believe that people like Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and other establishment Republicans are the ones who are sincerely wrong for not understanding that the more civil you are to the Dirty Dems, the more determined they are to destroy you.  That’s why the focus should always be on fighting fire with fire and trying to destroy them first.

All this being said, I don’t think we should be too hard on Jeff Flake and Bob Corker.  Their attacks on Donald Trump are rooted in the sanctimonious nature that became ingrained in them as a result of too many years in the D.C. swamp.  To borrow a phrase from Jeff Flake, it is they who are in a state of denial.

Perhaps a couple of years in a populist reeducation camp could help cleanse them of their self-righteousness — as well as their remarkable penchant for being sincerely wrong so much of the time.