From that great inspirational book in cyberspace, Wikipedia–
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The “ideas” or “cognitions” in question may include attitudes and beliefs, the awareness of one’s behavior, and facts. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.[1] Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.
A congressman was madder than a wet hen last Saturday when Metro didn’t do to suit him and his constituents. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Tx) demanded to know why government run Metro didn’t prepare for the arrival of a group of protestors from the southwest who were there to protest too much government involvement in their lives.
According to the Wall Street Journal the Texas Republican sent an angry letter to Metro compaining
that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.
His letter further stated:
“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,…These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”
From the march on Saturday, a spokesman for Brady tweeted,
“METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,…”
What a nerve. Let’s see…these folks were going to protest government expansion and services and bitched about Metro? Welcome to our world. According to Wiki, Metro is a tri-jusristictional agency authorized by congress and funded by Washington DC government, Maryland and Virginia.
What are they protesting again? Government doing too much or government not doing enough…for them. Maybe this is where the cognitive dissonance comes in to play. For me, it is easier just to say ‘hypocrites!’
Check out the full story on the Wall Street Journal link.
What is worse, the dim wit Congressman Brady voted against the Economic Stimulus bill which is rebuilding our transportation infrastructure. He also voted against additional federal funding for, guess what?
Metro.
So many right wing extremists are so good at stoking anger wherever anger is to be found. But they don’t understand the first thing about governing. This is a perfect example. Brady should pay more attention to the content of the bills he votes on, and less attention to the political tricks and games. That way he wouldn’t write such foolish and embarrassing letters.
ShellyB, thanks for filling in all the blanks on that one.
Do you think he cares that he sounds incredibly stupid?
Wish you had heard Rachel Maddow tonight. She had some comments about this and, like ShellyB, pointed out that this Texan voted against funds for Metro.
Anyway, why didn’t they drive their cars rather than rely on government run transportation? We want Government out of EVERYTHING!
I’ve got an idea! Let’s put Metro in charge of Health Care!!! Pandemic? Uh….we didn’t plan for it.
Congressman Brady is a very foolish man. Where did the people of his district find this loser?
Metro couldn’t do much worse than the current system, Slowpoke, you moron.
Slow, what do you think about this on a serious note? Chewing out Metro?
read on a blog about how Joe Wilson voted FOR giving free medications to illegal immigrants, but this was before anti illegal immigration was the issue of the day.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/014281.html
Congress had flu money allocated in the big stimulus packager, pre H1N1 but took it out because Republicans were saying it was “pork”
Pat.Herve,
Yes, I thought that little factual tid bit was quite surprising. Once again, sick people, no matter what their status or socieo-economic level, put us all at risk.
It is in our own selfish best interest to prevent disease. Why on earth would illegal aliens be kept out of the loop.
Elena, tell me you are kidding about removing flu money. Please tell me you are kidding.
Speaking of flu shots, the regular kind, most places are giving them now. Walgreens has them as does Safeway on a walk in basis. That certainly is better than standing in line for an hour on special days.
The real story about the stimulus bill and the flu money is much more complex:
http://www.propublica.org/ion/stimulus/item/stimulus-and-swine-flu-fact-check-part-2-429
Thanks GR, I will look at this article more closely, but it looks like the final cut was more complex, with D’s and R’s cutting it from the stimulus package.
Some was cut, some money was put in, it is rather complicated. It also does seem the money that was cut was done in a bipartisan way.
He could have used this to help his cause. Instead he ended up looking like a fool.
In theory, if government didn’t waste spending, then there would be more resources to fund worthy endeavors like public transportation and roads. He could have spun that as another argument against Obamacare.
Instead he seems to be trying to use it to support the bogus claim that the private sector can do anything better than government. But his rant is childish and whiny rather than a well formed argument. It’s typical of an elected official who knows how to get elected but is pathetically incompetent in addressing the many challenges that we as a nation face.
He really did make a fool of himself I thought.
Every time some private industry gets involved in something like transportation, then everyone hollers and bitches about that also. Seems to be no winning.
So I suppose anytime someone who likes government spending goes to the grocery store, they experience this “cognitive dissonance” since they aren’t letting government provide their food for them?
We expect government to do the things it is supposed to do, and we would like government to do those things competently. That the government can’t competently do even the most basic things that of necessity are government functions (like “public transportation”, the name pretty much explains it), should give pause to the idea that government should interfere in things that have no need for government intrusion.
Still, Metro didn’t mess up because it is incompetent. It messed up because it believed the mainstream media, and assumed nobody would show up in Washington.
Just like some, including so-called conservatives like Bill O’Reilly, still believe only 70,000 people went to Washington September 12, and somehow the metro couldn’t handle them. When in fact metro had a huge increase in ridership that they weren’t expecting, and it got so bad they had to let people around the turnstyles (thus not paying for their trips, or getting counted in the daily ridership) in order to clear the platforms for the next trains.
It’s this black-and-white worldview that also causes people here to be shocked that 3 republicans voted for the AAC.
Can’t have it both ways. Either you want government performing services or you don’t. Have a back up plan. Government can’t solve everyone’s problem, or so I have been told.
Most of us who live around here are used to waiting in lines for special events if we take metro. There are a finite number of cars that can run on those tracks.
Typical. People come to bitch about government spending get all pissed off when the government doesn’t bend over backwards to meet THEIR needs.