Wikipedia defines Psychological Projection as follows:
Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people.
Do not make the mistake of confusing the above definition of a personality disorder with the political dirty tricks used by the Republican Party. In the GOP’s version, there is nothing subconscious about what they do. Their lies are intentional and it’s all part of a strategy crafted in the backrooms by the Karl Roves of the party to be disseminated to the masses by the grunts and hacks who populate the conservative media.
When a Rush Limbaugh charges that it is President Obama and Dems who prefer propaganda over truth, one could not find a better example of right-wing projection. Obama lies, says Limbaugh, while he and those on the right are “the virtuous ones in our society — we think truth wins. We have this investment in the truth. We think it’s holy. We think that it is profound, and we think it’s persuasive.”
Pass out the barf bags.
Is Limbaugh subconsciously projecting his own traits on to liberals? Not a chance in hell. He knows exactly what he’s saying. Limbaugh believes truth is holy and profound in the same way he believes marriage is holy and profound. How long before wife number 5 enters his life? Limbaugh’s only investment in truth is ensuring it never leaves his lips.
One could make the argument, of course, that pond scum like Limbaugh are simply “entertainers” out to make a buck and push a conservative agenda. Whatever. But what does one way say about a man aspiring to be president who uses the exact same tactics that a Limbaugh does – a man who lies with wild abandon and projects every weakness and flaw that he and the Republican platform possess on to Democrats?
Hello Mitt Romney. Here’s a sampling of what Romney said this morning (via Daily Kos) during a CBS interview.
- On the Obama campaign: “The president’s campaign is all about division and attack and hatred.”
- On whether his remarks seemed unhinged: “They were very measured. I can be much more dramatic, I think. I think unhinged would have to characterize what we’ve seen from the president’s campaign.”
- On what he means by the president’s campaign being about hatred: “Well, I think if you look at the ads that have been described, and the divisiveness based upon income, age, ethnicity, and so forth, it’s designed to bring a sense of enmity and jealousy and anger.”
- On his view of the president: “The president seems to be running just to hang on to power. I think he’ll do anything in his power to try and get reelected.”
- On what has really got him mad: “The president’s campaign has put out a campaign that’s talking about me and attacking me. I think it’s just demeaning to the nature of the process, particularly when we face the kinds of challenges we face.”
Projection at its best. The man whose party has claimed for five years that Barack Obama hates America is now crying that Dems are attacking him personally. Romney is a piece of work. Attacks and questions on what he heralded as his main qualifications for the job – his business experience at Bain – are now seen by him as personal attacks.
Personal is insinuating that a man is unpatriotic and is out to purposely hurt his fellow citizens. Asking to see the tax returns of a man vying for the top job in the country and questioning some of his business decisions are not.
Four years ago it was hard to imagine a more unfit, incompetent pair of political clowns than McCain and Palin. That was until we got introduced to Romney and Ryan.
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(The base source photograph for the ‘Last Clown Standing’ illustration is a Library of Congress digital image. The Mitt Romney source photographs are Creative Commons licensed images from photographer Gage Skidmore. )
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Does anyone think that Romney really wants to be president? He strikes me as a very rich man that justs wants to buy the presidency as a trophy that he can show off to the boys in the billionair club. I truly believe that if the GOP take power in this election they will fundamentally change this country forever in the worst way imaginable.
When you say “pass the barf bags” I am literally in agreement. I feel physically sick when I see and hear a Romney soundbite on the evening news. He slams President Obama and then looking like a wounded victim, bats his eyes and scans the crowd for his anticipated reaction of approval about what he just said. Yesterday it hit me pretty hard when he was speaking to coal miners in Ohio and told them the President is waging war against the coal industry — and there it was — I was overcome with another wave of nausea!! I guess I just don’t have the stomach for this election. :(
Romney, the coward,cowers when challenges to build a better America are put forward. He has no imagination to suggest real policies that will enhance the middle class and when he has no answer to a specific question,he becomes defensive and attacks Obama’s campaign.
The occupy movement showed that our system does not work for the common man,tax breaks have not produced the jobs promised and offshore accounts do nothing for America. Obama has the persistence and perseverance to do what needs to be done as no one that I know would have dared floating a Medicare program during these arduous economic times. Obama is not afraid to do what is right for America.
Voting for Obama ensures a direct itinerary for a better tomorrow.Voting for Romney embarks us on a rat ship bound to nowhere.
The Romney campaign has taken a verifiable psychiatric personality disorder and presented it as a justifiable defense of his policies. It’s disgusting, reprehensible yet it completely makes sense to his base. Have we ever seen a more insane presentation of a presidential candidate? At the same time, his base is kneeling at his feet like worshiping serfs in wonder of his amazing perception. Seriously?
@Karen…
Our “Senator’s” new yard sign reads: STOP THE WAR ON COAL…FIRE OBAMA
I say our Senator’s because he, our Gov. and our D Rep have all declined their invitations to the Convention…siting “differences with the President” (i.e., our BIG COAL donors told us not to).
And then there’s the EPA…it’s ALL THEIR FAULT.
We’re mining more coal today than we have since the late 90′s…the President supports an “all of the above” energy policy…the EPA has merely asked our aging coal plants to not kill us with their emissions.
Natural gas is slowly killing coal…THAT’S THE CULPRIT.
I found Romney’s staged “coal miner’s best friend” rally a putrid exploitation.
This is what they’re all counting on [from The Authoritarians]:
From the looks of things, about 25-35% of the population fall into this category. Let’s hope it never gets higher than that!
Looks like we all pressed “yes” for that download…spells it out pretty clearly.
Makes your job much easier when you don’t have to think for yourself….reminds me of a song…”If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”…the right seems to be happily falling for just about anything these days, including the disgusting meme of POTUS as the “angry Black man”.
Send me a gross of those bags, Mario…
83 days to go.
It really tickles me pink when Romney runs his mouth about Obama and how Obama is full of hatred and jealousy.
We have just gone through 3 1/2 years putting up with Tea Party types slamming Obama and calling him everything under the Sun. It’s because these people think they’re better than any black man, even if he is in the White House and a good majority of American voters voted for him.
It’s called White Supremacy. Just because maybe they don’t belong to the KKK doesn’t mean they’re any better. At least KKK members know where they stand on race and they don’t pretend otherwise. Tea Party types would have us to think they’re just patriotic Americans who don’t like the communist, socialist president. Hypocracy runs rampant, as well as bigotry.
Mitt Romney played up to every side he could to get where he is. He doesn’t deserve to even be in the position he is because he doesn’t have the integrity to be there. He’s a liar and there is no truth in him. Our only hope is that Americans aren’t as dumb as they were in the midterm election and hand even more of our nation into the hands of a few wealthy, greedy individuals, with their posterboy Romney leading them.
fidlerten, don’t they remind you of the school yard bully who is the first to cry unfair when someone fights back against his abuse?
Dinamic, you’re so right! They whine like crazy when they get it handed back to them.
dinamic,
Absolutely. Bullies are exactly what they are.
In a related item, I was watching a political talk show a few weeks ago. There was a Republican woman on the show who said something like “Our party is a big tent; we welcome all kinds of people and opinions.” And I thought:
REALLY!?!?!?!?!?
Bravo, Mr. Piperni.
As an ardent Jungian, I was happy to read your post, expressing perfectly my own thoughts on the matter.
Thank you.