The Optics of “Public Plan”

The new explanation for the mounting resistance to Democratic health care proposals is that people are confused, they don’t know what we’re getting into, and they prefer the devil they know. I think all that is true. But you have to follow up: why are people confused?

Obviously part of the problem is that they are being deliberately lied to. But there are probably relatively few people out there swallowing and regurgitating all the lies.

Why? Simple: relatively few people pay much attention to politics, and most people have a very low level of familiarity with the specifics of any particular issue. According to a recent Kaiser poll, only 27% of Americans are following the health care reform debate closely. There are strong believers on both sides of the issue, but the key, as it always is in American politics, is the mushy, ill-informed middle. Read the rest of this entry »