IT’S HARD TO SAY what’s more amusing, the wild-eyed rants at town hall meetings or the conservative attempts to portray those snarling sentiments as genuine mainstream anger about the president’s health care plans.
Some Republicans are gleeful in the hope that the testy town hall encounters will derail Obama’s signature initiative.
Question: Do they really think the country is dopey enough to mistake microwave mobs staging Potemkin Village protests as an accurate expression of true American opinion?
If so, they’re delusional.
Lordy, I hope he's right. I wish I found it more amusing. Bring on the back-backlash. More on that later.
Please share widely!
Question: Do they really think the country is dopey enough to mistake microwave mobs staging Potemkin Village protests as an accurate expression of true American opinion?
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p>Answer: According to a USA Today/Gallup poll, 69 percent of Americans are closely following news of town hall meetings on health-care reform. Thirty-four percent say protests against the plan at the meetings have made them more sympathetic to the critics’ views, and 21 percent say the protests make them less sympathetic, according to the poll. Thirty-six percent say the protests have made no difference From here
Here’s the problem with polls like this one…
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p>if you’re already against the health care reform proposals (for whatever reason) you’re likely to say “yes, the protests have made me more sympathetic” because it’s an active reinforcing of an already held belief.
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p>Should we expect the same response from the pro-health care reform folks? Maybe not. After all, it’s much easier to wholeheartedly say “No!” to a proposal than to take the time to really understand it and say “Yes!”.
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p>Furthermore, measuring movement without measuring starting (or ending) point isn’t so helpful, since it doesn’t really help us understand where the median lies, or how it breaks down in congressional districts (and senate seats) which are expected to be competitive in 2010.
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p>So, take this poll with a 1/2 a grain of salt.
So what makes a true American? Someone who agrees with me?
“True American sentiment” = an accurate reflection of how Americans feel in the aggregate.
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p>To read it as “the sentiment of ‘true Americans'” — whoever they are — is a pretty ungenerous reading of that sentence.
After seeing mixed opinions among proponents of health care reform as to whether they’re winning, losing, or benefiting from a backlash during the town-hall meeting frenzy — I’ve seen the case made for all three — Lehigh’s piece is a breath of fresh air. Although he’s evolved his positions from primarily corporatist-conservative to more centrist, he’s no flaming liberal stooge of the Obama socialist agenda.
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p>Collateral to all this noise and propaganda are calls for common sense and civility such as Lehigh’s, and people are finally describing what’s actually being proposed in common-sense terms (Alternet: “10 Awesome Things That Would Happen If Health Reform Passes”), rather than expecting everyone to buy in out of faith.
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p>And now representatives of all the vested interests except the insurers are making the case together (Globe: “Drug companies, doctors join forces in prohealth overhaul ad campaign”). I’m starting to feel a little more hope that this will work out.
We have always had those. If nothing else the Town Halls have forced alot of people to think about the subject. I share Lehigh’s concern over the cost of health care reform and how it will be paid for when the federal gov’t is spilling so much red ink.
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p>The opposition needs to come to grips with the fact that the uninsured cost a ton of money when they require treatment, if you lose your job you lose your insurance, and pre-exisitng conditions should not make you immediatly eligible to file bankruptcy. I think these are the basic elements to health reform.
That line rates ten tens.
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p>Worth the price of the Globe today.