Give it up, Mary Anne. They can rationalize absolutely anything.
As in the old song, "The music goes 'round and 'round and it comes out here", meaning speaker.
With these conservatives, facts enter the mental pretzel and "The reality goes 'round and 'round and it comes out here. Or there. Or way over there. Wherever they'd like it to be."
Once in my drunken youth, come to think of it I wasn't so young, I filled out a tax return by entering my desired refund at the bottom and working backward.
It's sort of like that.
Arf