Backstage w/Supak: organic, progressive, environmentalist

Three of Four Bush Supporters Still Believe in Iraqi WMD, al Qaida Ties

Are their heads in the sand, or are they just willingly ignorant? While many Republicans, most notably on the 9/11 commission Bush originally opposed, and among the weapons inspectors like David Kay and Scott Ritter, have lamented the Bush administration's deception regarding Iraq, WMD, and Al Qaida, this story confirms that a majority of Bush supporters are ignorant of the facts. We all know why... If you tell a lie long enough and often enough, idiots believe it. Not only do Dick Cheney and GW Bush continue to lie about connections between Iraq and Al Qaida, but in Cheney's case, he even lies about is lies, saying that he never said there were ties!

"To support the president and to accept that he took the U.S. to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about pre-war Iraq."—Steven Kull, Director, PIPA

Many of my friends and loved ones try to convince me that most of these people are just misinformed. I contend that they are misinformed because they want to be. They are ignorant of the facts because they have come to a conclusion about Bush they like, and they don't need anything like facts to alter that view. They wanted a tough, decisive leader, and they've convinced themselves that's Bush, even though the facts say the opposite. It's easier for them to believe the myth they've created than to deal with uncomfortable truths. It would just be too painful to them to actually find out that Bush is killing all these people in Iraq based on some sort of warped, neo-con, imperialist vision that has nothing to do with WMD or Al Qaida.

I urge everyone to send copies of this story to swing states. Get your firends in swing states to post this story everywhere they can. Put it under windshield wipers. Casually leave it behind in the post office. Put it on tables where political bumper stickers are offered. Send letters to the editors of local papers quoting the story, or the study: The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters. Post it on bulletin boards. Nothing will sway undecided voters more than the truth.