Consistency Bias: Chasing the Mechanical Bunny, Obamacare
We all like to think that we are honest. Therefore, when we get the icky feeling that results from being of two minds about something, our consistency bias kicks in. This may be able to explain, in part, what is so deeply dysfunctional about our politics. Let’s look at one example:
Obamacare passes. The Supreme Court upholds it. Obama is re-elected. Obamacare takes effect. The government shuts down. The government re-opens. The website Healthcare.gov rolls out, and it turns out it has serious kinks.
That is the narrative of Obamacare up until this point. Or is it?
We will certainly be debating both the wisdom of this law, as well as the implementation of this law, for many years to come. We will also no doubt be debating whose idea the whole thing was. In the video below, former White House special advisor Van Jones tracks what he sees as the tortured logic behind Republican opposition to Obamacare, a policy that is based on a Republican idea.
Jones’s point, however, is larger than Obamacare. He notes that other ideas, such as cap and trade, were born as Republican ideas. Like health insurance exchanges and the individual mandate – the crux of Obamacare – these ideas tend to be free market solutions to problems. However, once Democrats have adopted these ideas, Jones notes, Republicans have come to disown them.
Why is that? According to Jones, this is about cynical politicking, not pragmatic policymaking. He says:
It’s like chasing a bunny on the old dog track…I think those dogs probably think someday they’re going to catch that bunny. They’re never going to catch that bunny because the bunny keeps moving.
Watch the video below – but then don’t go anywhere, because we are going to discuss whether Democrats are guilty of this same mechanical bunny bias as well. And we will also dig deeper and put a fancier name to this bias as well.
Watch here:
