Source: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/lwilson/080227
Lee Wilson
Lee Wilson
February 27, 2008
I took a sells training class years ago that left me with one valuable lesson: When it comes down to it, people make most decisions emotionally and then attempt to justify that decision rationally.
A German research study last year confirmed it as well. So that means we'll find excuses for buying the new car even though it might put us into debt with silly interest rates for several years. And the salesman can't wait to show you how you can rationalize it all. So he'll tell you that the monthly payment will be low on that car so that you're just fine with paying $15,000 over the sticker price after the interest is added.
Or, to note a current economic concern, some people might buy a house they really can't afford but want very, very badly. People were told they could have the house of their dreams and the justification was that the payment would skyrocket a few years later....but by then they would have found some way to come up with all the money they needed. So why not go ahead and start enjoying the house? We know how that emotion-based decision worked out for many people.
But it's easy to be swindled by something like that. We often take sub par justification when we really want something just so that we can quench that part of us that is looking for some sort of logical twig to grasp.
As so it goes with many Barack Obama voters.
I can't say for sure how many people I've spoken with who have an almost magical attraction to Barack Obama. I've talked to black folks who just come out and say that they will vote for him because he's black. And I'll often ask, "So there isn't an issue or position he takes you support, it's just that he is a black person?" And they'll sputter around a bit before finally saying that he's for "change." I'll push by asking, "What kind of change?" and they act like I'm annoying them because they have no answer.
This first-term senator has certainly inspired people. But not with his record because he's only a rookie and not with his planned policies he occasionally mentions off the record or between his pep rallies.
Take for example, his recent promise to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens. It was only a few months ago that he and John Edwards were giving grief to Hillary because she defended a New York governor for considering the idea. But Obama comes out and actually says that if elected President he will give drivers licenses to illegal aliens and there's barely a peep from anyone!
Obama supporters who never would have imagined supporting such an outrageous thing search for that logical justification to do what they want to do — vote for Obama. They want to vote for this man so badly because of the sheer novelty of voting for a black man who's got an unusual name that they have already chosen to justify the fact that his experience is minuscule. And so they reach deep into their rationalization well and find the easy button. "It's Barack Obama," they think to themselves. "He's got a great smile. And it will make me look so good to tell my friends that I am so enlightened and open minded that I voted for a black person. So it's okay that he supports giving drivers license to people who broke our laws and aren't even citizens of our country."
You'd think that they might sense something was wrong when (if) they learned his disturbingly radical position on abortion.
Basically, the issue was brought to the Senate floor that America needed to consider the issue of babies who survive abortions and are delivered alive. Terence Jeffrey of the Cybercast News Service penned an editorial a couple of months ago on how Obama reacted when considering these babies.
"He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions," Jeffrey writes. He said Obama "did not want to concede — as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor — that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact 'persons.'"
On the Illinois Senate floor, Obama was the only senator of either party to speak against the baby-protecting bills. You can read more about that story here.
But no, the Obama faithful will hold the dear-caught-in-the-headlights look for a few moments, but somehow find the rationalization that he is THE Obama, the magical one who will show the world how modern, enlightened and open-minded we are because we will be electing a black person to be President and that is more important than whatever he believes or wants to actually do as President.
Another startling position Obama took that normally would send a candidate to the pit of primary irrelelevancy occurred February 12 of this year. A recurring bill came up for vote that would preserve our ability to collect intelligence against terrorists like Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. The bill passed by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, 68-29. But Barack Hussein Obama voted against the bill that would allow us to continue to use surveillance to learn about plans of terrorists in advance, as we have before, in order to prevent attacks and make captures. But Obama, the man who wants to be your President, thought we were infringing on the rights of terrorists by listening to them talk about where and how they're going to attack.
But, you guessed it...those hypnotized by the slick smile and uniqueness of Obama are able to rationalize this one away as well. I'm honestly not sure how. This one I thought would at least slow him down, but it doesn't appear to be making any dent yet. Personal safety, the safety of our children, the safety of our brothers, sisters, moms, dads and friends for some reason can't compete with the novelty attraction of this first-term senator who offers something that none of his actions can stand against. I suspect that deep down though many Obama supporters feel that something isn't right, that maybe they should pay attention to the man behind the curtain. But the dream of voting for him so far outweighs the nudging of their conscience at this point that he truly could say or do anything without losing morale or allegiance from the glazed eyes of those who are so intoxicated by the messenger that they have forgotten to consider the message.
Lee Wilson is a editor of Grace-Centered Magazine and formally on staff at Family Dynamics Institute. He co-authored The Real Heaven with Joe Beam and is co-creator of Love Path International.
No comments:
Post a Comment