About rightwing claims of popular opposition to healthcare reform

by: Carnacki

Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 16:14:48 PM EDT

Indeed, even as rightwingers claim the public overwhelming opposes healthcare reform, the reality is much different:

Thus, a majority of Americans either support the plan or believe it should be more liberal (52%), while only a minority (43%) oppose the plan on the ground that it is too liberal.

Noam Chomsky has a good take on the issue of those of us who supported it even though it should have been more liberal

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor added that it's a damning referendum on American democracy that one of the most highly supported components of the effort nationally, the public insurance option, was jettisoned. He partly blamed the media for refusing to stress how favorably it's viewed by the populace.

"It didn't have 'political support,' just the support of the majority of the population," Chomsky quipped, "which apparently is not political support in our dysfunctional democracy."

The provision has consistently polled well, garnering the support of sixty percent of Americans across the nation in a CBS/New York Times poll released in December, days after it was eliminated from the reform package. Democratic leaders deemed it politically untenable.

"There should be headlines explaining why, for decades, what's been called politically impossible is what most of the public has wanted," Chomsky said. "There should be headlines explaining what that means about the political system and the media."

But the "will of the people" can be ignored when the people lean left. When the vast majority oppose war, it's "political courage" to go against public opinion.