There very much is cognitive dissonance. Half of the people/laws/government has a far left wing "it's not my fault" mentality, as you say. (moreso even than "left wing" Canada, we haven't even legalized pot yet!) The other half are far right wing "steal from the poor and give to the rich" and "fend for yourself" bent.
That would be 2 groups with extreme opposing values and beliefs, acting on those values and beliefs. Not cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is when
a person’s actions are contrary to their held beliefs causing a level of discomfort to that individual. A pretty big stretch to apply that in this circumstance and on a national level.
“Steal from the poor and give to the rich”. “Fend for yourself”.
That is just plain insulting. I don’t know anyone that advocates stealing from the poor. Or to allow those in
real need to fend for themselves. I do however know a large number that advocate for making your own way. Or more simply, you get out of life what you put into it. Or as the Declaration states every citizen has the right to make their own way in the “Pursuit of Happiness”. If you want a nice car and nice house, you have to work for it. What is being pushed now is more in line with Socialist beliefs. I,e. the “redistribution of wealth”. Take what others work hard for and spread it across to everyone whether they work or not. Socialism. Or maybe even Communism.
Not here.
Most of the social programs that you criticize exist only to make some rich guy richer but sucking up half the money out of the government funded program. It's insane.
Social programs exist to make some rich guy richer? Where do you get this information? Oh, right. The lame-stream media.
Who is getting rich from welfare?
It’s pretty much the other way around. The majority of tax-payers are being drained to fund these programs. Just about all of the government funded social programs are broke. With their expenditures far higher than their incomes (Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, “Welfare” (TANF/SNAP), etc.). Currently, less than half of the US citizenry pays income taxes to fund these programs. And we are about to experience the largest number of people to retire, ever. So another huge amount of tax revenue is about to be lost. This means an even higher tax burden on even fewer working people. So who is getting rich? Oh, yeah. The only people getting rich from social programs are politicians. They keep pumping more into social programs to garner favor from those receiving the benefits to ensure they vote to keep them in office. The “welfare” program is essentially designed to suck people into the system and then keep them there. And to make them totally dependent on the system. This is where the lack of personal responsibility comes in. “Why get a job when I can get paid more from the gov’t than by going to work?” For those who are
truly disabled and in need, assistance is a good thing. For those who are "using" the system it's wrong.
For example... electronic voting machines, designed and built by a for-profit private company, which lobbied the government to get the job and can contribute to political campaigns. You've got to be kidding me. It's just so wrong on so many levels. The only way that ever should have been allowed is if the software was COMPLETELY open source, and the machines built by a not-for-profit entity.
Open-source? You have got to be kidding. That would open huge security holes for fraudulent activity from the likes of ACORN and others who would want to manipulate elections. Not to mention a COMPLETE lack of system integrity.
Of course they lobbied for the job. It’s called bidding for the government contract.
How did you get your job? Did you actively pursue employment? Or did you sit at home and wait for a company to come looking for you?
A non-profit entity? Right. That would mean they would be subsidized by the government or other groups. Making the “non-profit” vulnerable to “political pressure”.
