Maureen Dowd, at the New York Times this weekend, on Republican apologists on election night, November 6, 2012:
Republicans and Fox News have excelled at conjuring alternate realities. But this time, they made the mistake of believing their fake world actually existed. As Fox’s Megyn Kelly said to Karl Rove on election night, when he argued against calling Ohio for Obama: “Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?”
Karl Rove is an atheist, but when it comes to the Republican Party, he reasons, spins, and rationalizes exactly like a religious fundamentalist or cultist.
Or worse, a lawyer.
Fortunately, at least for the next four years, the “epistemic closure” infection has been isolated to within the Republican Party. The persistent bad faith and propaganda static from the far right will be a bit less in the collective national air than it would have been had Romney won.
As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s something I’ll be adding to my list of things for which I’m thankful.
Prometheus Unbound 
I didn’t know ole Rove was an atheist. I it doesn’t matter who you are, if you surround yourself with a bubble of bullshit, your not going to have a very firm grasp of reality.
Rove’s obvious intellectual mentors are Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and Strauss. It’s not hard for a nihilist to pair up with fundamentalist religionists. They’re useful. But the infection can then run both ways.
There is a really serious problem with the self-congratulatory hubris in the Democrats celebration of this election. Dowd’s ‘Republicans and Fox News have excelled at conjuring alternate realities. But this time, they made the mistake of believing their fake world actually existed.’ Ignores the fact that this election was a squeaker that pivoted on just a couple of really dumb positions – notably immigration and women’s rights. If they had simply spun their lies a little smarter, they could have won. Monied Republicans would (and regularly do) sell their souls for cheap labor – a commodity typically supplied by un-pregnant women and illegal immigrants. That middle class workers (to include many Hispanics and Blacks) support the 1% agenda baffles me – but many do.
I think the epistemic closure phenomenon is real in the Republican media sphere, but you are probably also right that the Democrats are showing hubris.
All week I smiled because, whatever bad happened this week, at least I knew that Mitt Romney and his gang of obnoxious zealots would not be leading the country for the next four years.
I went with my wife and kids to a college football game this weekend. There were some moments in it when a runner found open field and it was beautiful. Obama is in that space right now and it feels really good. He broke free of the tackle. Sorry if I cheer.
–Santi
Cheer all you want, just remember that the big R actively offended enough voters to loose the election. Had they been just a little less foolish, they could have won. Some of them will learn this.
You’re forgetting, Obama won despite he was black. Had the Dems run a white guy they would have slammed romney at least by another 5%.