Generic Republican Strategist on TV: "Well, David (or Contessa, or Joe, or Chris), the polls are very clear that the majority of the American people do not like Obama's health care plans. And what we're seeing is that the more they learn about those plans, the more unpopular the plans become."
I'm here to call BS on that. From Benjamin Disraeli to Mark Twain to me: Lies, damned lies, and statistics -- all three of which are involved in this scenario.
The biggest, damnedest lie is that the people who are turning against the health care plans are doing so because they are learning more about the provisions of those plans.
There are basically four categories of people who don't like the health care reform proposals:
- "Single-payer-or-bust" progressives.
- "The only legitimate purpose of sepnding by the federal government is for protection against criminals and foreign enemies -- i.e. military & police" conservatives. (I know this category well; it encompasses most of my relatives.)
- Those who can't accept that a black man, a Dem, a librul, or some other pre-determined category, is in the White House and will oppose everything he tries to do for however many years he's there no matter what it is.
None of these groups will be swayed one way or the other by learning more about the specific provisions of the bills. They knew a month ago everything they needed to know to make a permanent decision.
The fourth category are the ones whose minds may be changed by the specifics of the bills. And which direction that change trends depends on what they are learning when they "learn more" about the proposals.
And what is it that people are "learning" that is causing their attitudes toward health care reform to become more negative?
* That Obama is running up a trillion dollar deficit, in addition to the eight-gazillion-jillion trillion dollars he has already strapped to the backs of our great-grandchildren.
* That the guvmint is going to stand in the examination room with a gun at your doctor's head ordering him or her not to spend any money to help you get well.
* That government agents will be breaking down the barricades you built to fortify your grandmother's door to bar their entry, so they can force her to choose which method of state-sponsored execution she wants the Obama SS to use on her.
If I were being fed a steady diet of this toxic crap from all my normal news outlets, and didn't have Keith, Rachel, and Daily Kos to shine the light of truth in my life, I'd be "opposed to Obama's health care reform plan" too. Except, of course, I wouldn't have any idea what Obama's health care reform plan is.
I finally heard one person on TV today start to try to raise this point, but they ran out of time before it could go beyond a single sentence.
I swear, I hate what the traditional media have become.
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UPDATE: I just saw some wingnut on TV preaching to a crowd: "Adoph Hitler issued about six million end-of-life orders. He called his program the Final Solution. I wonder what we're going to call ours."
Ye gods.