Seeing is Believing? Not so!

I appreciate that in a democracy we have different parties with different ideologies. What I do not understand is how one Party can so blatantly deny the facts when they are easily verifiable and obvious for everyone to see and that there are people who believe such misrepresentations solely on ideological grounds. This curious phenomenon stands in opposition to the saying that "seeing is believing". In fact, the contrary is true, believing is seeing; corroborating the notion that we are only able to see what we already believe! Hence, I stopped arguing with people who have set and distinct opinions from mine. It is a complete waste of energy. At the same time, this has made me more alert to my own beliefs and the necessity for me to not judge too fast or be stubborn in my opinions. A healthy open-mindedness is necessary for constructive discourse.

This realization is illustrated by an article by my friend Diane Vacca who writes: "What the [Republicans] refuse to acknowledge is that since Obama took office, the budget deficit has declined by roughly $1 trillion, and we are in the longest period of sustained job growth in our history. Unemployment, which reached 10 percent in Obama’s first term, is now 5 percent, lower than when the sainted Reagan left office. Under Obama, the economy has recovered from the Great Recession, which he inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush, significantly faster and better than any of the other major world economies."

Vacca goes on to say, "Gene Sperling, the former director of the National Economic Council, told the NY Times, “If we were back in early 2009 … with the economy losing 800,000 jobs a month and the Dow under 7,000 — and someone said that by [Obama’s] last year in office, unemployment would be 5 percent, the deficit would be under 3 percent, AIG would have turned a profit and we made all our money back on the banks, that would’ve been beyond anybody’s wildest expectations.” But most people don’t know that because the Republicans have constantly been hammering the lie that the economy is in shambles."

I would add the incredible turn around of the US automobile industry and the drop to 10% from 18% of the US population which is still without healthcare to the list of accomplishments; and this despite the hysterical opposition of the GOP to Obamacare and other Obama policies. Had the US Congress been more cooperative, the economic recovery of the last 7 years would have been even more impressive.

Source: https://dianevacca.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/donald-trumps-presidential-debut/