Apparently, You CAN Fool All of the People All of the Time

Obama is a fascist, socialist, commie pervert who will spread Nazistic Communist Socialism throughout America by way of his black helicopters on loan from the UN and he is not really the president, being a foreigner and all, now is he?

Health care is the first major test of the better-educated center attempting to take the country's future back from the largely ignorant, largely Southern fringe who were manipulated by a handful of smart and ill-intended Republicans and their puppeteers from the Big Money special interests into doing their bidding over the last twenty years.

They use conventional media outlets and the Internet to try to retain control of the power that largely white, largely Northeastern power brokers have enjoyed for more than two centuries, by energizing scared white folk afraid of losing their grip on power to the black 'foreign' guy in the White House.

91 percent of the 2600 or so yahoos at ConservativeHQ.com polled seem to think that Obama is either a Nazi or a Communist, or both. It is not scientific, but hey, these folks do not believe in science, so vote away!

Small polls from right wing sources like America's Watchtower show the Obama-Socialist connection at 68 percent, to a Newsmax.com web poll with about 32,000 respondents calling Obama a Socialist at 84.95 percent.

The more sane and scientific AP Poll, which does not allow for yahoo-stuffing of ballot boxes on the web, shows that, as of the end of July, 2009, only 6 percent of the public would describe Obama as "liberal," with fewer than that, less than 3 percent, labeling him as a Socialist.

They are a vocal 3 percent, though. Last week ThinkProgress.org reported:

Approximately 91 percent of weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and just nine percent is progressive. However, "43 percent of regular talk radio listeners identify as conservative, while 23 percent identify as liberal and 30 percent as moderate."

Everywhere snake-oil hucksters are peddling bootlegged Bigot Bourbon: A fear-inducing blend of white-power paranoia and a barrage of ads and editorials on everything from health care to the appointment of Mark Lloyd, who wrote "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," to the Chief Diversity Officer/Associate General Counsel post at the FCC.

Even major publications like Investors Business Daily, which makes the conservative Wall Street Journal look positively liberal, are whipping up tasty innuendo souffles for the ignorant.

A long editorial entitled "Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism," the first in a series of op-ed pieces painting Obama as a Socialist, is filled with the same kind of garbage innuendo reporting that was around during the campaign:

"In his latest memoir he shares that he'd like to "recast" the welfare net that FDR and LBJ cast while rolling back what he derisively calls the "winner-take-all" market economy that Ronald Reagan reignited (with record gains in living standards for all)."

The white-power angst intensifies as he states:

"Obama doesn't stop with socialized health care. He wants to socialize your entire human resources department -- from payrolls to pensions. His social-microengineering even extends to mandating all employers provide seven paid sick days per year to salary and hourly workers alike."

and:

"The seeds of his far-left ideology were planted in his formative years as a teenager in Hawaii -- and they were far more radical than any biography or profile in the media has portrayed."

The editorial features paragraph after paragraph of guilt-by-association innuendo similar to the Bill Ayers attacks of the campaign:

"After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.

His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America."

IBD's editor did report the findings of the AP poll near the bottom of the piece, but it is buried in dozens of embellishments so deep that it appears as an insignificant attempt at balance.

This is the most mainstream, non-Fix-News rant of hundreds of these, fear-inspiring falsehood features found from the thousands circulating out in the digital ether.

For a country with compulsory education to the 12th grade, you would think that we would not be, as a people, so damn ignorant in the 21st century.

You can teach people that two-plus-two is four, but Ann Coulter can write a book saying that it is five, with some fanciful tale of demonic liberals changing the math curriculum to keep you from reading the Bible, and you will find millions of Americans who let their beliefs bypass fact correcting their kids homework and attending PTA meetings histrionically demanding new textbooks.

P.T. Barnum's famously cynical thought on Americans, "There's a sucker born every minute," and H.L. Mencken's legendary quip, that ""[n]o one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," still sadly hold true.

The Gallup organization reported in July of 1999 that 24 percent of those surveyed could not tell you which country we separated from during the War of Independence. 18 percent of Americans believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

In June of 1997, a CNN/Time poll found that 87 percent of people thought that the government was holding out on them regarding the truth about alien life forms visiting our planet.

Most stunningly, even after continual and concrete evidence has been laid out to put to rest the notion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, more than half of Southerners polled believe that Obama is not a native citizen of this country.

The Birthers barely exist in the Northeast, with slightly more in the Midwest and West, but the numbers suggest that traditional racism and white power fears are alive and well in the South.

Trusted polling agencies like Gallup can put up polls like the one on August 20, 2009 which showed that, in spite of the commercials that tell you that the state will have the right to kill you, citizens in countries with universal health coverage are generally more satisfied than citizens in countries without universal health care.

There is a large segment of the population, though, that, no matter how well you document it, will not let a good fact get in the way of their fears.

We are a fear-driven culture. Generations of advertising has been worked around two things: Fear and desire. You can sell a cheeseburger or a car or lip gloss using desire. You sell erectile dysfunction, insurance, financial services and politics, traditionally, by using FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt to motivate the public.

The forces opposing change barrage the airwaves with this fear mongering:

Most embarrassing is the sheer ignorance we display on health care. Watch this BBC report debunking the lies about British National Health for the Americans interviewed at town halls, and their comments:

Obama is trying something which has not been seen since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: An appeal using information and inspiration, not fear.

Many people think they know FDR's famous quote rallying Americans to put aside their fears in an Inaugural Address, but in its totality, its wisdom is as important today as it was then:

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

To advance, we have to put aside our fears.

If the special interests win this round, they will be back, and change will be dead.

Unfortunately, they have both the money to get out their message, and the Pavlovian conditioning of generations of Americans on their side.

Follow Brian Ross on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mlnsports

Comments

[cdnsloveobama]

I am a middle class Canadian and am quite happy with our healthcare system. But I must say something about the myths floating around about "Canadian-style health care" I recently needed to see a specialist for a condition and my doctor got me an appointment in less than 3 weeks. My son got a specialist apopouintment in less than two weeks and an appointment for an x-ray at our children's hosptials in one month for a non-urgent matter. My parents are in their eighties and have no problems with the Canadian healthcare they receive and most recently took a trip to the Caribbean where they de-bunked myths about Canadian healthcare to some American travellers. I don't think our system is perfect but I would not trade it for the American system as it is today. I remember hearing of an instance where an American hospital dumped a homeless person, gurney and all, to the side of the road. And a 20/20 episode that indicated that in Canada, you can get better healthcare for your pet than you can for yourself. I was just appalled at these irresponsible actions and would like to say there is NOTHING TO FEAR WITH UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE .

[creolechild]

Here's some encouraging news...

"The “Mad As Hell Doctors” from Oregon are making themselves heard at the Obama Administration with an email campaign that threatened to shut down the White House inbox."

"The road-tripping, physician-activists from Oregon known as the “Mad As Hell Doctors” received a pressing call from the White House this week to demand they remove a letter on their website requesting a meeting with President Obama to discuss “the moral, social and fiscal imperative” of a single payer health care system. The reason for the call: too many emails from supporters have overwhelmed the White House inbox."

http://www.healthcare-now.org/white-house-overwhelmed-with-requests-for-obama-to-meet-with-mad-as-hell

Adam Klugman, National Creative Director for the Mad As Hell Doctors campaign and the person who received the call, puts it this way. “Chris Whitty from the White House Office of Scheduling called me and said that he has been ‘besieged with emails’ from within the millions of single payer supporters in this country who feel that Congress and the President have completely turned their back on them. It told him that it’s not our campaign that’s applying pressure. It’s the people. I also told him that we’d be glad to take the letter down, just as soon as the President agrees to meet with us.”

[68-lukeburlington]

Unfortunately it goes a lot deeper then that; I think that the Astro turf fear mongers are tapping into racism, fear is just a symptom, not the disease. Please check out http://www.suburbanempire.com and see if you think there might be something to that view!

[Opus007]

I have been to a couple to town hall meetings. The problem is you have people earnestly trying to understand a 1000 page bill and then you have the wing nuts shout out "socialism", 'death panel" and "government takeovers".

Congress- just lift the age restriction on Medicare. Simple. Done. No new and scary program to figure out. No 1000+ page bill to pick apart and argue over. Just do it.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

It's a great idea, but almost too simple for Congress to consider reasonably. They're looking for partisanship, not solutions.

[johnashman]

That's my point. It's all a way of keeping more big government for Republicans and Democrats, to hell with the people. But to claim that it's a Republican problem is insane. They're equal and opposites. The middle ground is to follow the constitution, let the Feds do their ENUMERATED jobs, and then be as 'conservative' or 'liberal' at the state level as we want. Let California have single-payer. Let Texas have MRSAs. Let New Mexico have some version of ObamaCare. See what works, the other states will follow the lead.

But no, you guys want to roll the dice when the most similar systems we already have in place are already in serious problems. If we have to pay for three, there is no way our kids will be able to pull the plane out of its dive. Look at the projections for SS and Medicare. It's UGLY.

[Kealadi]

I have been thinking the same thing, Opus007-about the age restriction on Medicare, and how simple it would be. I was thinking it could be changed to cover people 50 and older. How easy is it for people over 50 to go out and get hired for a regular job these days? In this society, it seems employers are looking for youth. It's usually safer for them as they assume young people won't be as likely to suffer from "aging" diseases like those 50 and older can. The trouble with this idea is how easy would it be to throw the argument into the fray about health care reform and get any legislator to pay any attention to it? The larger question I have to ask is this: how intelligent must a person have to be if they want to work in congress? How high is their compassion index when it comes to the welfare of every American citizen? Do they need to take an intelligen­ce/honesty­/dependabi­lity test so that we can make better-informed choices when we vote?

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

Ted Kennedy aptly reminded us that you don't change things with a magic wand. Change is a ground game. Sometimes in a ground game things go slowly, and they get ugly. You sometimes stop hearing the cheering from the stands. Ultimately, you push the ball forward, win back your fans support and make PROGRESS.

Good intentions, and general Utopian thinking aside, President Obama is doing what he is supposed to be doing. The President does not legislate. He establishes policy. He gives a reasonable period of time for his party to carry the ball. If and when they can't, he uses the power of the Executive Branch properly to make the case to the Congress and the American public that his ideas have merit. They use a few levers of power available to them to convince a handful of senators to see things their way.

He's holding a joint session of Congress as they convene because the consensus he was seeking from the gang of six did not materialize. Obama is not a stupid man. He is also not a dictator. He will get progress. How much progress is really up to YOU. If you are bitching here, and not out there bitching at your members of Congress, how can anything really Change because they still carry the vote, and it sits, right now in the hip pocket of the lobbies from Insurance, Health Care Professionals, and Big Pharma.

[Alok Kumar]

Is he giving us a good explanation why he won't go after tort reform even though everyone knows that would bring down the cost of health care? As for inspiration, I'm sure the notion of great health care for all is very inspirational to you. It inspires me too. But it doesn't inspire me to ignore the facts and demonize anyone who may not see things the way I do.
http://www.resveratrolsources.net | http://www.acaiberrystudy.net

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

I can give you another $130 Million reasons why he isn't going after tort reform. To take on the insurance, health care, and health professionals, the second most powerful tiers of lobbyists and their Republican and Democratic cronies is one thing. You want to throw the trial lawyers into the mix on this?

You would never get anything done. Ever. Things are bitten off in degrees in politics. Obama was lucky, in a sense that the economy flattened so many of these companies and temporarily took away some of their cash flow to throw at problems like these. Unfortunately that was short-lived, and now they're spending a ton on ads and politicians to scare the health right out of you.

[johnashman]

That's an unbelievable rationalization for again protecting lawyers. A nation of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers? "They give us money, so it's all good"?

Or are you saying we should vote on all of these provisions separately, one at a time?

[Shenygirl1]

Thanks Brian for one of the most informative articles I have ever read on Huffpo. I haven't heard much from you since you blew the whistle on the automotive CEO's, leaving Metro airport on their private jets to arrive in Washington for the hearings. As a resident of a Detroit suburb, and previous resident of the city, I found your report interesting. We've always known that those CEO's have considered themselves "Rock Stars" and we had no sympathy for them.

Growing up in the city of Detroit; a place where the middle class originated, thanks to the unions and the "Big Three", there has always been class distinction between the different levels of the middle class; white collar, blue collar, and innercity poor. After the exodus of the middle class from the city in the 70"s, the blue collar workers felt that they had arrived. So what did they do, they became Republicans and were known as the Reagan Democrats. .

These same individuals are all mostly all retired now from the Auto Companies, but are still getting their health insurance covered by a UAW program. They can be seen at town hall meetings protesting against what they call government run health care. and screaming " they don't want the "govmint" touching their medicare". Their motto is that they've got theirs and the Hell with everybody else. The greed and selfishness in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country never ceases to amaze me.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

First, thanks for the compliment, but I'm not the ABC Brian Ross. I'm the MLN Sports Brian Ross. I tend to blow the whistle of people who blow whistles.

Maybe you've stumbled on to a fine motto for the Republican Party: "I've Got Mine. The Hell With You."

It would pair well with the Cheney-Palin 2012 ticket.

[johnashman]

Clearly not the real Brian Ross.

[PhilipTaylor]

HR 676 Medicare for ALL WHO want it is single-payer!

But add an OPT OUT for those wanting to buy commercial health care Insurance and suddenly you have the Strongest possible Public Option!

People could solve their health care problems simply and effectively!

With from 100,000,000 to 306,000,000 people in Medicare for ALL "FAIR PRICES can be negotiated with all aspects of health care.

This does away with the 1,000+ pages of loopholes and "duct tape" applied to the existing systemS!

Hr 676 is a simple to read and understand 50 pages - make that 51 when you add the OPT OUT clause!

[johnashman]

Here's a better system than ObamaCare -

http://64.203.97.61/SolutionsLab/Solution.aspx?Guid=2d50363e-00be-44e8-9251-9a6589ba820d

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, Medical Retirement/Savings Accounts. That's just perfect unless of course you work two jobs and can't save enough from either of them to put that away. Mark the Matchboy will be out there scrimping his pennies to do that. Unfortunately if he comes down with cancer at 19 he will be a little short of what he needs.

Get real. We need a public option for those who can't get insurance, and can't make enough to take care of themselves when they get sick.

[johnashman]

I can get national healthcare costs down to about $2K per capita. ObamaCare can't do that. It will keep prices high. Possibly stunt the cost increases. But it can't lower them.

Mark the Matchboy's parents will have an account for him that has over $50K in it by the time he's 18. Further, the catastrophic feature will pay for the money he can't afford, even if he just started his account.

Get real and READ it. You're no better than a congressman if you refuse to read.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

Who will be my 50th Fan here at HuffPo? Reply to this and I will send you a MAJOR ATTITUDE T-Shirt from my other gig :D

[Manuela Mage]

The obese, acid refluxed, chronically achy, Fox channel watching, gun toting and pick up driving crowd
Studies, again and again are revealing the fact that Southern states, led by West Virginia, are not only poorer but have much higher levels of prescription drug intake. Oddly enough, this is generally the same region that is most vociferously opposed to universal health care.
As my husband points it would be a lot cheaper to treat all the obese, acid refluxed, chronically achy crowd than to run 2 wars in two countries that BTW have universal health care paid for by us, the American tax payers, but that's besides the point.. On another note perhaps connected but still on another note is the question of why it is that the poorest citizens have the worst health, both physical and mental, suffer the most pain and eat the worst diet. Perhaps because they are less educated? You don't have a choice when you are not aware of the possibility of having one!

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

Perhaps, just perhaps, companies that sell cheap foods filled with things that contribute to obesity and heart disease don't necessarily want health care regulation because they fear the slippery slope. You pay more for health care if you are a smoker. If yes for Tobacco, why not the Twinkie?

The cheap food manufacturers have no love of health care reform either. It intensifies avenues of improving health, which clearly is bad for their business.

[marxmarv]

Also notice how loudly they screamed when the idea of comparative effectiveness research was floated. That panel would have banned HFCS within ten years.

[johnashman]

The MRSA program incentives good health and eating habits, but doesn't force it. Because if you're healthy, you get to keep your money for retirement.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

I love Republicans. There is a right to life, as long as it's still in the womb. Health care to preserve that life? You're on your own, kid.

[Notbluedog]

If there's a mold to be a repub, you just manufactured it!.......­..........­.........m­ade in China.....­....sorry.

[Scarborian]

Don't forget the Republican Governors' motto "Life is sacred unless I sign the death warrant"

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

George Bush and the C Street Band. Death Row Records, 1986.

[DDKAHALAS]

Obama talked the talk he didnt walk the walk.....He still can powerfully present his version of a health plan. i somehow dont expect him to.I think we were fooled into thinking this man a progressive when he really is regressive. None were more fooled then the Kennedys.

We knew something was really remiss when he didnt try to heal our sick Constitution by going after the Criminals in the last Administration who helped to shred our constitution. He then retained some of these ideas for his own Administration. A number of his appointments were from a list of David Rockerfellers friends of the world elite like Geiger and many of the others.whose main concern is fattening the pockets of Banks and health insurance companies.

I dont see how he has done anything to help the Path of a much needed government option for his health care plan thaT HE TAlked up when he was running for President now forgotten when he reaches his goal.Lastly His eulogy for a truly Great Amerivcan Ted kennedy was at best Tepid
I agree with Obama let him be a one term President.

[unite4change]

DDKAHALAS, you apparently haven't been paying attention.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for pointing out that the extreme Left is almost as out of touch as the extreme Right. Obama is a CENTRIST. I know how that upsets big L Liberals. Obama promised that he would get government doing the people's business again. As much as that pound of flesh out of Bush's hide just seems so satisfying to y'all, the downside of that would not only have been gridlock through Obama's term, but for decades to come. We're still feeling after effects (Ford, Reagan and both Bushes) of bringing down Richard Nixon.

Obama has never been a radical or a lightning rod, hence his NO DRAMA OBAMA nickname. He will govern as he told us that he would, from the center.

Ted Kennedy knew better than anyone that the ground game is how you make progress. Hard lefties are looking for Joe Montana. Obama is more like Roger Staubach.

[anachoret]

Are you saying that, if the "Liberals" would have let Nixon do his thing, we wouldn't have had Ford, Reagan or either Bushes?

[CarmanK]

People expect their representatives to be smarter than they are. Many of us find the nation's problems overwhelming and realize we don't have the solutions ourselves. So when a politician runs for office and says s/he have the answers, than that's what is expected. When, people hear radio personalities spew their vitriole, they believe the mush. And I really believe the repugs with Luntz as the wordsmith, have perfected Hitler's BIG LIE campaign ( outlined in Meing Kampf) for distribution in the US. We say, that Hitler's Germany could not happen here, but if people are fearful and an authoritarian figure surfaces, offering answers, it doesn't matter how twisted the logic. George Orwell postured that during times when lies are permeating society, to tell the truth is revolutionary. I think it is time that the dems started spreading the truth vociferously.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

People expect their representatives to be smarter than they are?

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224724/april-15-2009/better-know-a-district---illinois--18th---aaron-schock

[Kealadi]

AMEN!

[punkindmb]

Let cut through the cr ap. The current system is not working. We will be swamped by all the uninsured if and when they all need emergency care. We have to do something. If a government run, free health coverage for all program, is not the answer, then what is? I'd be more than happy to pay a tax just to get full coverage. As it stands now, I pay a premium and I don't get all the coverage I need. I mean, what kind of policy doesn't cover the well woman's exam? People are hurting and the politicians are playing games.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

The kind of policy that keeps your insurance company profitable, and is less concerned with how well you stay.