Somewhere on YouTube is a clip of Senator Al Franken having a civil conversation with a group of constituents, including people opposed to the health care reform bill. One of the opponents asks him if he is going to "side with Obama or side with what a majority of the people want?" He politely answers her that polls he has seen show that a majority of people want the public option. The woman and her friend seem to just shake their heads "no".
Franken and the group actually go on to have a civil discussion, but I was struck by her insistence that a majority of people agree with her position on health care. At first I thought that she was just looking at events through her own framing, but that I started thinking. What if all she watches is Fox News and listens to right-wing radio? Wouldn't she begin to believe that her views represent the majority opinion in this country? If all you saw were Obama's opponents on the television news you watched, wouldn't you think that they, and not Obama supporters, representend the majority?
I began to think about this possibility some more. If you all watched was Fox and its news personalities, then you would probably have been very suprised when Obama got elected. If you all listened to was Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck, wouldn't you think that most Americans support the radical right-wing philosophy expressed on those shows?The benefit to right-wingers from Fox News is that they never have to confront the possibility that they are a minority of Americans. To them, they are the majority and when Obama was elected, it was somehow illegitimate because a majority of the people they saw and listened to didn't support him. That's why the whole myth about the power of ACORN and other liberal political action committees. Indeed, to them the election of Obama, in spite of not being supported by what they perceive as a majority of Americans must seem like the result of a sinister conspiracy.
The benefit to the Republican Party is that they can keep their followers on the edge of hysteria and keep them motivated to support the GOP with donations and volunteer time. It also means that there won't be any pressure from the right-wing base to compromise with Democrats or liberals. After all, why compromise with the minority? Shouldn't the minority give in to the majority?