He's OUR PRESIDENT, so he must be right

I was listening to the Sam Seder show on Air America Radio this morning when a woman called up to complain to Sam about how she hated him because he obviously hated America.

When Sam tried to get her to explain why she thought he hated America, she said that it was because he was attacking our president and attacking the president is equivalent to attacking America because he is OUR PRESIDENT.

That kind of thinking is more prevalent than many of us would believe. As I think of those in my family and among my friends who have supported the Republicans and the president, I think many of them simply have had a very hard time bringing themselves to believe that an American president could lie to them. And, even once they've become convinced that this American president did lie to them repeatedly, they still want to believe it was for a higher cause. They want to believe this because he is OUR PRESIDENT.

This is all tied in to the America is always on the side of right -- the good guys with the white hats -- kind of thinking. It is more a wish than a reality, but because they wish it to be true, it strongly affects how they filter the facts. If the facts don't comport with the wish (e.g., America is not always among the good guys. It routinely engages in torture and just voted to endorse it officially.), there has to be some countervailing higher reason to justify it. The terrorists are so much more evil and more threatening than any other foe we have ever faced that we must engage in such tactics in order to DEFEAT EVIL.

The point I think I'm trying to make here is that many of these people have good motives. They would really like America to be on the high ground -- to be the good guys in the white hats. Unfortunately, they simply can't bring themselves to believe any president (except, perhaps, Bill Clinton) could possibly lead to country do bad things for the wrong reasons. Mistakes, perhaps, but a president who deliberately takes the country down the wrong road is impossible for them to imagine. He's OUR PRESIDENT. We voted for him. America could not possibly be wrong when it votes. After all, we believe in democracy.

What I don't know is how you get through to these well meaning, but totally mis-directed people. Perhaps their cognitive dissonance will eventually cause a light to come on -- and maybe that's what's happening this election season. But, maybe not.