Cliff Knizley Notes…

LIBERAL COGNITIVE DISSONACE DISORDER (LCDD) By Clifford Knizley

As a political junkie and a “Reagan” conservative, I’ve spent a great deal of time pouring over all things political throughout the internet and the blogosphere. As much time as I spend in front of the computer, I still like to go back to the editorial pages of the local newspaper. The Gainesville Sun op-eds and letters to the editor were my starting point. It was where I first began to collect the empirical data and to focus my observations on that most peculiar malady that I like to call Liberal Cognitive Dissonance Disorder.

Perusing through the Sun’s editorial pages this past week, I saw repeated examples of two very common and distinctive traits associated with LCDD. Like many daily papers, The Sun tends to print liberal to conservative letters by a ratio of approximately four to one, so the sample size is usually large enough for a sound study. This week I was reacquainted with the overwhelming tendency for liberals to descend into mindless group think and the unique leftist trait to take words common in day to day conversation and use them as if their definition were the exact opposite of the traditional meaning. In this case that commonly used word was selfish.

Over the span of several days, The Sun published letter after letter from leftys, sometimes as many as three in one day, all sharing a distinctly common theme. The theme of these letters was that people who do not want to pay absurdly high taxes in order to fund a federal health insurance takeover are selfish.

Websters defines selfish as “one overly concerned with their own interest”. In the minds of this leftist sample group, you are selfish if you don’t want the federal government to take your money in order to fund the leftist dreams of national health insurance. Now, some of you may be thinking (especially you libs), that the person who doesn’t want to pay higher taxes to fund liberal fantasies is “overly concerned with their own interest”. Just in case you’ve temporarily slipped into the illogical, irrational, alternate universe of the left, let’s look at it a different way.

Imagine you’ve gone out to dinner with your family. You don’t go out often in the Democrat’s oppressed and depressed economy, because you’re living on a budget. You’ve got a backseat full of kids and in addition to watching your dollars in order to cover rising food bills, energy bills, a house payment and other monthly bills, you’re also saving for the kid’s future. The outrageously high, statist engineered property tax bill is also heading your way. Eating out is a luxury and you’ve budgeted for that, but still you’re skipping the dish you’d really like to have in order to make the meal a bit less expensive.

Now imagine that on this very same evening, the local Leftist Moon Bat Society for Group Thinkers has chosen the very same restaurant for their weekly focus grouped talking points session. The parking lot full of lawn mower sized hybrids covered in bumper stickers should have been a clue, but you were too busy having a life and paying attention to your kids.

The moon bats just happen to be sitting next to you. You’ve done your best to ignore their indignant, self-righteous rants about the teabaggers who don’t want to pay a fair share of their ill gotten, unfairly large paychecks to King Barry and his Merry Congress. Once your meal is finished and you’re ready to leave, the check comes. It’s a bit higher than you’d calculated, but you’ll make it up somewhere else in your budget. As you prepare to leave, a loud clamor emerges from the moon bats next to you. They’re demanding that you pay their bill as well. Out of nowhere a check is shoved into your hand (who knew a table full of vegan dishes could be so expensive?). The restaurant’s unionized employees are blocking your way and demanding that you pay for your neighbor’s bill. All you and your family wanted was to cover your needs, on a budget, and a group of union thugs and leftists demandi that you pay for them too. Which side do you think is selfish?

I and most of my fellow conservatives have no problem paying taxes to fund the legitimate functions of government, as set forth by our founders. These would be national defense, other public safety services and even public education, but I don’t want to fund social engineering, special interests and an ever expanding entitlement state that can not be sustained by a “progressive” tax code predicated on class warfare. I don’t think that following the frame work set forth by the founders makes me selfish. Operating in our own self-interests, under this framework made America the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known, and a nation known worldwide for it’s charity. The far left wants to remake this country in their own image, with the makeover financed by average Americans. So, whose really selfish?

Filed under: Chip by Chip