Swine Flu at level 5, Arlen Specter becomes a Democrat, and Obama’s 100th day.

Wow lots to blog about this week.

Despite all these important events I think I want to talk about Stephen Colbert.

For a while now I have thought that some conservatives didn’t really understand Colbert’s genius satire. It seems like many conservatives either don’t get it or choose not to get it.

Check out this post over at Horses Ass that talks about a study tracking how conservatives react to Colbert’s amazing program. This study reveals that self identified conservatives like Colbert not for his amazing political satire, but because they think he is serious.

On the surface this might seem like just another liberal elitist University “proving” that conservatives are dumb. Now this may be the case, but I think there is something deeper going on here.

I would like to posit that to some extent the conservative philosophy is based on a certain about of cognitive dissonance. The ability of Governor’s like Rick Perry to advocate secession while at the same time demanding the federal government send them more resources do deal with the Swine Flu is just one of the most recent examples of conservatives’ amazing ability advocate two seemingly contradictory positions simultaneously.

To take this argument one step further, I would argue that most conservatives who even bother to watch Colbert really do understand that he is skewering them but choose to reject this thought and through some mental gymnastics can convince themselves that what Colbert is saying is not sarcastic. This cognitive dissonance allows conservatives to enjoy Colbert’s amazing satire while at the same time not reconsider their political views.

Or instead of all this fancy psychobabble it could just be plain old ignorance, like the guy who booked Colbert for the White House Correspondents dinner in 2006. If you haven’t seen this you must watch Colbert lambast president Bush who sitting literally 10 feet from him.

Enjoy!