http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/29/1373514/-It-s-so-hard-to-be-an-Obamacare-hating-Republican-these-days
One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to which it has been moving toward epistemic closure. Reality is defined by a multimedia array of interconnected and cross promoting conservative blogs, radio programs, magazines, and of course, Fox News. Whatever conflicts with that reality can be dismissed out of hand because it comes from the liberal media, and is therefore ipso facto not to be trusted. (How do you know they’re liberal? Well, they disagree with the conservative media!)
-- Julian Sanchez
Julian Sanchez, a CATO Institute fellow who specializes in the areas of privacy and surveillance, was perhaps the first to concisely distill the alternate reality that has been created by the continuously cross-referencing circle of conservative media outlets. Conservatives live in a bubble of epistemic closure in which narratives and ideas that feed a particular narrative are introduced, reinforced and then judged to be accurate simply by virtue of having been presented by the correct media authorities. It doesn't matter if whatever is being claimed has an actual basis in objective reality: once an idea that pleases the conservative id has taken root, it is mighty hard for truth to pierce the bubble of fantasy.
This is why President Obama can in the conservative mind be a Kenyan, a Muslim, a socialist, and a black liberation theologist all at the same time. It's why no amount of evidence can ever convince conservatism the climate change is real. It's why they view it as a fact that Obama is killing jobs and exploding the deficit, even as the facts are exactly the opposite on both counts. And it's also why the Affordable Care Act is simply known to be a disaster that is ruining lives, damaging employers, and constraining freedom, even as in reality it is reducing costs, saving lives, and making health insurance affordable for people who have gone far too long without it.
But when conservatives are forced to venture outside the circle of epistemic closure and actually confront the world outside the bubble, the results are hilarious, as we've seen this week with certain Republican opponents of the Affordable Care Act.
Let's take what happened this week to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who was selected to deliver the official Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address last year. On Monday, Rodgers took to her Facebook page to ask her supporters and constituents to share the ways in which the Affordable Care Act has negatively impacted their lives. The conservative narrative about health insurance reform, of course, is that it has jacked up premiums, made taxes more difficult, and made employment harder to find.
Rodgers' fishing expedition didn't go as planned: the thread was deluged by dozens, perhaps hundreds, of comments in support of the law. Individuals described how either they or family members who could not get coverage previously due to pre-existing conditions were now able to get themselves insured. Others discussed how the law's subsidies had drastically reduced their insurance premiums. Healthcare providers told stories about how their clinics were seeing a massive influx of people who had finally gotten health care after going far too long without it.
that is oh so true it's incomplete though because it's hard being a republican period. they have spent now going on 7 years damming Pres. and the ObamaCares lie it's a train wreck, abomination now that we all see "THEY LIE" it's hard to say anything negative about it but some still do. i wonder about Cruz did he agonize over admitting he was signing up no i don't think so it's the law he and they have always painfully been aware of that so throwing his hat in the ring required him to get right with the law of the land this was a necessity move not one of surrender. what now will be interesting is if he continues to bemoan the relevancy of the law or just shuts up till after the 2016 contest.
that might be difficult seeing as how the party requires them to go stage right off the cliff to win a primary than slingshot back to center right for general election, that i see as their conundrum you over embellish, lie like a dog, engage in the who hates Pres. and Hilary the most then you change face and become the reaching out to you lying candidate, and that is why they lose elections and have to cheat they confuse already under informed and confused voters with who the hell are they really voting for primary liar or general liar btw did i mention the lies change also with whatever election is going on?
