Talking Down to the Public Will Surely Work
This is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.
--Barack Obama, State of the Union.
There's a lot in the bill that people are going to like. It's just a question of understanding it.
--ABC's Cokie Roberts, Dec. 20.
What are the immediate plans for recalibrating the message or intensifying the message to explain better to the American people what you're trying to do?
--Question to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Jan. 20.
It mighty big of man with nice voice to take blame like that. Him not need to. Head honchos not often take blame. Most times after big screw-up, head honchos say they have "full confidence" in someone who work for them -- right before pushing someone off edge of cliff, or letting someone twist "slowly, slowly" in wind, like tricky Nixon guy did with man who ran FBI.
Man with nice voice not like those other head honchos. Him bring change to Washington already, see?
But him right. Him not explain health care good. Use too many big words. Say too many compound-complex sentences. Confuse American people. American people not want that. American people want simple explanation. Simpler the better.
Me feel kind of sorry. It must really get on nerves for man with nice voice and people on his side, like lady on TV and cheerleaders in White House press pool. Why can't lamebrain American people get idea through thick skulls? Them not know how to make choices in own best interests! Need enlightened leaders to make choices for them. (Enlightened = smart. Me look this up in thing called "dictionary." Dictionary good! Try sometime!)
Want example? Take mammogram fight. (Mammogram is thing where doctor squish tender woman part really hard and take picture. Owie!) Last year U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say women not need mammogram until age 50. Say squishing younger women not very clinically effective, so not save many lives. Say sometimes "false positives" scare women. This not good. Smart people must protect silly women, make sure they not get scared!
Experts say, from cruising altitude of 32,000 feet saving 12,000 lives over course of 10 years just not worth it. Country should not waste money like that. (Can hardly see someone from that far up anyway.) But crazy right-wing TeaParty people go around saying things like: Well, if it my life or my daughter's life, maybe me feel different. Maybe me should be one to decide to get squished or not. This just show crazy right-wing Tea-Party people always thinking about themselves.
There so many things man with nice voice need to explain gooder. Like, if some people still need health insurance, why not just give them insurance voucher, like housing voucher or food stamps? Why put entire U.S. medical system in Cuisinart and set on Liquefy?
How come House bill create 111 new boards, commissions, and programs? How come, if point is to give insurance, House bill raise big chunk of revenue by fining people without insurance? How that help anyone? This seem crazy to knuckle-dragging trailer-park people, who not know no better. And how come Medicaid and Medicare not doing the job? Isn't that what they for? And if they not do job, then why should people think even bigger program will?
Many American people too stupid to see answers to questions like these, even though they totally obvious.
Man with nice voice also need to explain why it so bad that U.S. spend more on health care than other countries. U.S. spend more on clothes and iPods, too. People in U.S. have more what called "discretionary income." Only spend small share of paycheck on food and rent, so lots left over. Old man want to get knee fixed, why stop him? Him want to buy big new tender woman parts to make hot young trophy wife even hotter, what wrong with that? Seem kind of silly, sure. But man with nice voice need to point out where in Constitution it say White House get to make that call for him.
Stupid American people have strange mad love for Constitution. Crazy right-wing Tea-Party people always making big fat deal out of it. Want to know where it say Congress can make people buy insurance. Freaky house speaker think that Constitution business nonsense. "Are you serious?" she want to know. Crazy right-wing Tea-Party people dead serious. Say government that can make you buy insurance can make you do anything, anything at all. Some even ask what crazy right-wing president and Congress with that kind of power might do. Me not like to think about that!
Whole issue make brain hurt. Good thing man with nice voice in charge. Him have right ideas. Just need to try new angle, that all. Talk slower. Talk louder. Use small words. Treat American people like kid who got held back in elementary school. That bound to work eventually.
From HotAir; Original post here: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/opinion/op_ed/article/ED-HINKLE29B_20100128-182402/320790/
5 years ago
Unfortunately I come across MANY people day to day that need things explained in the simplest terms using very small words. Like it or not, there ARE a lot of stupid people out there.
ReplyDeleteYou got that right. I'd say at least half the people in this country have no idea how the government operates, just the basic day-today workings of it.
ReplyDeleteBut I found this article to be dead-on, as far as it's obvious that Obama thinks the only possible reason so many people are opposed to the health care bill(s) is because we don't UNDERSTAND it.
It couldn't possibly be that maybe some of us don't want the damn thing because we understand it PERFECTLY, and are opposed to it on principle in general, and the frighteningly awful specifics in particular.
Tank u. You make so easy a caveman can understand it...
ReplyDeleteAnd you have to admit that many people, even if they do understand it perfectly, would be opposed to it simply because it is Obama's pet project and backed mainly by Dems......
ReplyDeleteNow see, I think the President thinks the same way you do, and I think you're both wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those issues that divides Right and Left.
I think y'all just don't get that what we oppose is the underlying assumption that health care is a right, and that the government should provide it for everyone.
I myself would not care if Ronald Reagan, George W Bush and Margaret Thatcher all rose up from the grave and retirement to push it. I just do not believe anyone has a right to health care inmsurance, plain and simple, regardless of who is trying to put it through.
I feel bad that some people cannot afford insurance, and if someone, somewhere can figure out a way to make it more affordabe for everyone without imposing stupid restrictions that will not work, and involving the government, then I'd be all for it.
Believe me, I see your point...there are some people who are not going to agree with anything Obama does, just like there were many peope who assumed everything Bush did or suggested HAD to have been bad just because he suggested it.
I am not that way, and with regards to health care, I do not believe the vast majority of those who oppose it are doing it JUST because it's Obama, This was opposed when Clinton pushed it by the same type of people.
The odds are good that I am going to oppose most of what Obama proposes, because I am not Liberal, and I do not subscribe to that world view.
The odds are also pretty good that I am going to agree with most of what a Republican says, BUT, Bush and McCain both fully supported a "path to amnesty" for illegal aliens and I bitterly opppose that.
I don't blindly follow leaders of my party any more than I blindly reject everything a leader on the opposite side says.
You come from a very Liberal part of the country, one that does not seem to mind the government interfering in things and in fact, seems to think the governement ought to. There are plenty of people outside that area who are more independent minded, think people ought to take care of themselves, and don't want government in every little aspect of their life.
Okie, you're crackin' me up!!!!
I think I look at it from a more human point of view than those on the Right. Maybe insurance, per se, is not a right, but I whole-heartedly believe that access to affordable health care for ALL damn well ought to be. I fully believe in people taking care of themselves and in personal responsibility, but this transcends that. There is absolutely positively no good reason whatsoever why, in this day and age, in the richest most powerful nation in the world, should our citizens not have access to adequate and affordable health care. NONE! And truthfully, the assumption that those of us that are more liberal or are from the city are any less independent than people living in the middle of nowhere is, frankly, bullshit! And I do get pissed off when that assumption is made about us.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems that many on the Right want the government heavily involved when it suits their agenda. But when those on the Left propose something that entails government involvement suddenly the cries on the Right are that government is getting too big blah blah blah.
In any case, I wanted to share this here. The following are not my words...someone I know from Facebook wrote this and he hit the nail on the head! Of course many people, maybe you included, will say m agreement with this is just my liberal leanings coming out, but whatever:
On a very basic level, we are all in this mess together---so I have no idea why we simply don't just take care of each other. Put away the religious and political and other iodeologies that DIVIDE us, and realize that we are all responsible for each other's well being.
And, I love you!!! Mwaaaaahhh!!!!
I want to make sure you understand that I didn't mean dependent in the way it's been suggested on other forums.... ;o) I just mean I guess that as a rule, y'all are more comfortable depending on the government, that you think it's the governments job to be taking care of many aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteI am also not sure how the myth that anyone in this country doesn't have access to medical care is being so heavily perpetuated. There is a HUGE difference between not having insurance, and not having access to medical care.
Anyone in the country can walk in to a hospital and get treated, insurance or no insurance. It's ILLEGAL to deny anyone medical care in a hospital. Illegal.
If a person doesn't have insurance, and chooses to put their financial concerns ahead of their health, and then turns around and whines that they don't have access to medical care, they're liars and I'm calling bullshit on it.
I am okay when people say they can't afford insurance, but saying anyone in this country does not have ACCESS is just wrong. I live three hours from the Mexican border, and I can assure you that half the illegal aliens in Southern California are in the emergency rooms at any given time; access is not a problem for them, nor is it a problem for anyone else.
And I guess I have to plead guilty as charged as far as not thinking the government should be taking care of people, other than basic "safety net" kinds of things.
I happen to take care of a great many people in many ways, and I would hope that other peole do the same thing...however, it's my choice to do so. I do not feel like the government has any right to tell me to take care of anyone, other than any minor children I might have.
I don't think the government should be involved in much of anything other than my defense and protection; of course I can't answer for other people.
Most of the problems we're facing now are the direct result of very good intentions being pushed along, regardless of the realities of how life actually works.
Welfares tarted out as financial aid to women with dependent children, who's husbands had died, usually in war. We are now cyclingthrough our 4th generation of welfare entitlement mentality, and if you dare suggest that it be cancelled and that people, you're accused of being racist among other things, despite the fact that there ar more white people on welfare than any other race.
Social Security and Medicare haven't been around all that long, and are already bankrupt...none of this is sustainable.