re: #395 Killgore Trout

I’ve been repulsed by the right’s handling of the healthcare debate. However…
New Gallup poll shows town hall protests winning over independents?

Rasmussen: GOP now more trusted on health care than Democrats
…it seems to be working. I’ll give them credit for that.

That kind of reasoning treats the public as if they were mindless sheep being pulled in opposing directions and as if truth were subject to rhetorical manipulation. Americans are turned off to the Democrats’ plan because it is a horrible piece of legislation, and the paralysis-inducing panic that facilitated the passing of the bailout, “stimulus,” and outrageous budget is starting to fade. There’s just so much bs people can swallow in a year. It’s not the Republican leadership or the town-hall carzies that are convincing Americans to reject ObamaCare, it’s the actual merits of the bill, or should I say, lack thereof. Republicans are probably even hurting themselves at the margins, but the net effect is that people won’t be fooled on an issue so close to their skin as health care. It’s too palpable a service for spin (from either side) to manipulate people’s opinions easily…

The arrogance of Obama and the Democrats hasn’t helped their cause either. What were those comments from Obama? “I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking,” he said. “I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.” And emails contrarian to the bill being forwarded to the White House? Quite a way of shooting themselves in the foot…

People also tend to be apologetic to the disgusting behavior in some town hall meetings, because deep down they identify with the anger agitating these wackjobs. I am not speaking for myself here — there are no excuses for this insanity as far as I’m personally concerned, but I’m sure many others will turn a blind eye.

Even I am angry, no, livid, about the prospect of this bill passing — especially if it contains anything close to a public option. How I deal with my anger is obviously much more productive, and not being a Republican or a right-wing hack, I am not blind to the disgraceful behavior and fear mongering from the right (Palin’s remarks being the case in point) but heck, I still trust the Republicans much more on health care than I trust Obama and his Congress because the former aren’t trying to do jack, whereas the latter want to destroy anything I consider good about the current system while compounding its problems and inefficiencies.