Remember Dean Angstadt from
earlier today? He's the self-employed lumberjack that almost died from a heart condition because he refused to sign up for Obamacare. It took his liberal friend months to talk him into it, and once insured, he was immediately able to get
life-saving major surgery.
The original story was heavy on the feel-good stuff (the ACA saved his life!) and thin on his motivations. So the Washington Post's Erik Wemple followed up, and yes, it was really all about Fox News.
He says that he “leans” Republican and essentially listened to what the GOP had to say about Obamacare, and not so much to what the Democrats had to say. As for his media diet, Anstadt says he goes online for some of his news, but when it comes to television, “Fox News, of course, and that’s basically what I watch on TV,” in addition to local news, he says. “I like some of those radicals” on Fox News, he says. “I like O’Reilly.”
Asked if Fox News had molded his view of Obamacare, Angstadt responded, “Yeah, yeah — they get people fired up. You know what, I really do have a different outlook on it. It’s really wrong that people are making it into a political thing. To me, it is a life-and-death thing.”
And this is why Republicans are so dead-set against helping even their own people:
Of Obamacare’s namesake, Angstadt says, “I didn’t care for Obama. I can’t say nothing bad about him now because it was his plan that probably saved my life.”
Republicans would rather kill off their strongest supporters than have them think that maybe that fellow in the White House—and his Democratic Party—aren't so bad after all.