Prometheus 6

Fair Shot almost gets it:

The central insights of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove (and, I suspect, most of the right wing machine) into the manipulation of the political process are twofold:

Act as if there are no facts. There are simply things that people say or believe, and other things that other people say or believe.
Act as if there is no causation. There are simply things that people do and other things that happen. There is no connection.

These central insights can be combined in interesting ways. For example, there are things that we say people do, and things that we say people believe. (The "some people say" canard beloved of Fox and George Bush himself) Or, there are things that we do, and then things that we say happen (tax cuts for the rich generating jobs). But the essence is that there is no reality, no facts, no causation. Therefore, there's no shame in being caught in a lie nor any reluctance to persist in the same lie. To paraphrase Jack L. Chalker: "No break rule. No rule for Republicans break."

That is what it looks like, but even that's too much rationality. It's more like this:

One of those hierarchically significant people, I'll call him George (because that was his name) explained to me the purpose of rules. Prior to the conversation I thought rules were intended as a guide, or to insure a rational environment. This gentleman, being a maker of rules as opposed to a follower of them, had a different perspective.

George explained to me that no one looks at what you do as long as nothing goes wrong, and even if they do check they still have no way of knowing what truly happened. All they know is what you recorded and if that's enough to explain the situation at hand, you don't have to say another word. No one can question your judgment…as long as you can document that you followed the rules…no matter how screwed the result. More, a set of rules or laws broad enough to govern a social situation as complex as a workplace will have a sufficient number of rules to insure you can find one to support any personnel decision you'd care to make. In other words, George said, rules are used, not necessarily followed, by people in decision making positions. This accorded with my observation that the main outward sign of power is that a person can decide a situation falls outside the rules and act independently of them.

George explained it very concisely: "Fuck the rules. They're only there to cover our asses. If I want to do it, I will."

I recognized this years ago, and have long since stopped fighting it.

If you REALLY want to understand, there's a book, The 48 Laws of Power, that you will likely find as disgusting as enlightening.