How Bush thinks: intuition over intellect - Chait in LAT

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Bush is even apt to apply this particular brand of illogic to his own character. In one of the 2000 presidential debates, Al Gore pointed out that Bush as governor of Texas opposed a measure to expand children's healthcare and instead used the money for a tax cut. The debate moderator then asked Bush, "Are those numbers correct? Are his charges correct?" To which Bush replied, "If he's trying to allege that I'm a hardhearted person and I don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong."

The style of Bush's reply is telling. Gore was trying to make a point about Bush's moral priorities by establishing a series of facts about Bush's behavior. Rather than deny having chosen tax cuts over children's healthcare, or explain his rationale for having done so, Bush changed the subject to more comfortable ground: judging people's hearts. He asked the audience to intuit, based on the way he carries himself, that he is a warmhearted person, and thus to reject out of hand any facts that might clash with this impression.

The point isn't just that Bush refuses to engage with facts he finds inconvenient. (Many fail that test.) It's that Bush rejects reason itself. Reason is a process by which we draw our broader conclusions from an accumulation of specific evidence. When the evidence changes ("Hey, this Putin guy seems to be squelching dissent"), our conclusions can also ("Perhaps he doesn't love democracy as much as he said he did!"). Bush, on the other hand, arrives at his beliefs through intuition. His supporters marvel at the unshakeable certainty of his convictions. Well, no wonder.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-chait5aug05,0,6079158.column?track=hpmostemailedlink

[BlueEyedSon]

1. So he pulls it out of his ass, rather than using reason and experts

Fucking brilliant

[MasonJar]

4. Bush would have to intuit Machiavelli because I guarantee he

has never read his words. Instinctively he is The Prince, I guess. He should buy the audio book and hear the part where the author recommends that those who conquer should move to the country they have conquered to make sure that everything goes well. Bush permanently in Iraq with Pickles; I like the feel of that.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Of course

He's probably been doing that his whole life. Remember they say that we go by politicial polls but these are backwards people. As Jon Stewart said: Bush's compassion, like the olympics, shows up every four years.

[teryang]

2. Bush is a liar pure and simple

This is what he does. He steals things on a huge scale. He is a war monger. He panders to the corporate rich, particularly the armaments and energy industries his family and supporters are heavily invested in. Its a family tradition since WWI. He and his slavish supporters have converted the state to a fascist model.

While marines are being butchered on a new scale in Iraq, bush is stumping to gut social security. Like Louis XVI, he is completely indifferent to the circumstances of the common people. This is the reason his approval rating continues to drop.

If you want to know how the Bushes think, read Machiavelli, it's their bible.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. I'll have to find that book now

These people simply are disgusting. Don't forget he's also cuttting VA benefits in his 2006 budget.

[emulatorloo]

3. Bottom line for Bush: Does it benefit my rich friends, does it keep me in

power?

I know the LAT reporters get paid by the word, but sometimes concision is the best approach.

[blindpig]

5. I'm going to get smacked for this..

but that sure sounds like Hitler.:hide:

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Why? It's true

I know some people don't like to say that but it's totally true. Even the Germans can recognize it.

[wli]

6. this has the fallacy of assuming Bush believes anything he's saying

[FreedomAngel82]

12. He doesn't

It's all lip service for people to vote for him. Same with all of these rightwingers who are like him. I'm sure there are some good rightwingers left (very few of them) but for the most part I doubt any of them really and truly believe the pro-life nonsense they spew and they say a few Bible verses and whatnot. It's all for their base.

[Stirk]

7. He makes a good point. I would add that

the Bush Administration is a stew of various unreasoning forces.

Some are political idealogues who are simply incapable of acknowledging facts that don't support their predetermined political ideas. Others are religious fundamentalists, who are openly hostile to rational thought or anything else that smacks of science. Still others are simple corporatist liars, willing to say anything if it makes them a buck.

And then there's Bush himself, who has elements of all these things in his personality, and is intensely stupid to boot.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. And I don't think it's his intuition at all personally

I think he just doesn't give a damn about anything unless he can make a profit from it.

[Lisa]

13. bush decides things based on impulses, not intuition

Real intuition involves some intellectual activity. (If you have a "feeling", almost always there's a really good reason to back it up -- based on your previous experience or other background information you've got.) But Bush just plunges ahead regardless.