Wondering why there has been so much antagonism at health care town hall meetings?
Frustration.
I watched CNN’s Campbell Brown Friday night. She interviewed the opposition organizer (term used loosely; the woman posted a copy of the notice on the internet and people came) for one town hall meeting that turned into a ruckus. Brown’s interview illustrated more about the problem than the organizer’s responses did.
Brown seemed desperate to get two very good and very legitimate questions answered; who it was that inspired the organizer, and what the screaming and yelling accomplished. The organizer answered the questions well but Brown failed to comprehend that simple fact.
The answer to both questions was, “frustration.” Somehow that wasn’t getting through to Brown. It seems not to be getting through to any health care supporters. Supporters are unable to understand that no one whispered evil thoughts into the organizer’s ear. There is no secret cabal out to destroy health care (at least none that I have been invited to join). The problem runs far deeper than any conspiracy.
Opponents are frustrated. Frustration is driving them to the town hall meetings, overriding their thinking and driving them to shout when they know they are not being heard. Frustration does not excuse the bad behaviors, but neither does failure by the mainstream media to understand and report that opponents have been locked out of meetings and that there are professionally organized efforts to bring in health care supporters to counter the opponents. Opponent’s views can’t be heard and so their frustration builds. The media fails to understand the opposition’s opinions and therefore fails to accurately and empathetically report why opponents are opponents. Without accurate, empathetic reporting, supporters will never comprehend the opponents. If supporters don’t understand the opponents concern than opponents have no way to make changes. Frustration builds.
The media is unable to understand the opponents. Opponents are treated by mainstream media as though we have something wrong with our minds, or that we have fallen under the spell of the evil Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity and this nonsense builds more frustration.
Obviously, no truly intelligent, enlightened person worth our time could possibly oppose this great effort to advance our society, therefore they must be idiots or possessed.
I don’t know how we establish some form of understanding between health care opponents and supporters. I do know that for health care reform to succeed, to be approved, implemented, and to survive beyond this President and this Congress that question has to be answered.
Start by listening to the opponents frustrations.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen!
Close, but I believe the anger is not because the media isn’t attending them, I believe the anger stems from being incessantly lied to and lied about. No other President, not even LBJ or the compulsive Clintons, haved come close to telling the whoppers OB & Co. has. “We’ll cover more folks’ healthcare at a lower price. You’ll get the same kind of coverage we get in Congress. There won’t be any lines. There won’t be any rationing. You can keep your current health insurance and doctors. The Government doesn’t weant to take over your health care. It won’t cover abortions. We’re not going to cut Medicare. Your taxes won’t go up.” Lie upon lie upon lie, directly contradicted by their own words in the proposed legislation. The seniors and special needs families KNOW what’s in the Bill. How evil is its intent. … The Democratic leadership actually doesn’t care if ANY of their policies work. They couldn’t give a whit about health care, Global Warming, the economy, or jobs. What they care about is power and control over the people and to eliminate serious political opposition for the forseeable future. If they control whether you live or die, they control everything. But at least for now, ‘the sheep look up’.
You are being heard! The problem is that you are just repeating the same irrational opposition we have already heard a thousand times. Look at the beliefs Michael Kohlman expresses here…
“What they care about is power and control over the people”
For what purpose Michael? Are they out to make a huge profit with all this power? Or is it just pure “evil” intent?
Let me try to make this clear. Propaganda is a very real, very professional, very expensive service, available to anyone who can afford it. Being able to afford it is the important thing to keep in mind.
Capitalism leans toward the consolidation of wealth.
Socialism is more about the equal distribution of wealth.
Of the two, where might one find enough money to fund propaganda in the mass media? It doesn’t come cheap.
Insurance is a multi-billion dollar industry, that employs an army of lobbyists and a ton of anti-government propaganda. Can you find a multi-billion dollar industry on the other side to match it? Where would the “leftist” propaganda, if it existed, be getting it’s funding?
I’m sure you’ll have an argument or two to defend your beliefs about ” leftist” propaganda and how unfair the world is towards the opposition, but lets move forward anyway.
Propaganda uses “emotions over logic”. The frustration and anger on the ‘right’ is understandable. The “pro-insurance” propaganda targets emotional triggers to creates “irrational opposition” because rational support for their agenda is not within the realm of reasonable expectations.
Consider the “insurance mandate” proposed by the insurance industry, in order to accomplish the goal of “universal coverage”. Who is going to pay for the “uninsured” who can not pay for themselves? Tax the rich to pay for the poor of course. But isn’t that a leftists thing, rather than a Capitalist thing? NO! Not when there are that many uninsured people looking so much like potential profit to a greedy Capitalist. Who really has the most to gain from “insurance mandates”? The “leftist” president you love to hate? Nope. His supporters are fiercely against insurance mandates. Nothing to gain there.
Here is another good example of the use of “emotions over logic”. “End of life consultations” are a fairly normal practice where the family and a doctor will talk through medications to ease the suffering, living arrangements, etc, of an aging loved one. The proposed funding of this is what was labeled as “Death Panels”. The propaganda key to understand is that the natural objection to something like “death panels” already exists, the propaganda just attaches that trigger to an aspect of the Health Care plan, and the ‘right’ freaks out. The anger is understandable. It’s intentional.
Let’s hit another. In the insurance industry, there is a six-figure individual who makes your “life and death” decisions for you, and in many cases, receives bonuses based on denial rates. The motivation is profit, for both him, and the corporation who employs him. If they can reject your treatment, and do not have to spend that money, they make more money, and the this six-figure individual gets rewarded for that savings. The fear and anger about some government official making those decisions for you, true or not, is somewhat understandable, but look at the alternative, and how your irrational opposition is pushing you to support the same thing, but in the case of Capitalism, your death caused by denied care is someone else’s bonus and possible promotion. This exact event actually happens, and was even testified about in Congress.
One women was not denied care, and got her $7,000 surgery, but after her insurance company found a loophole, her coverage was rectoactively dropped, and she had to pay it herself. The loophole? She didn’t disclose a “yeast infection” from her past.
Just take a look at what you are “supporting” as the alternative to what you oppose. Look close at the insurance industry. The multi-million dollar CEO salaries, bonuses, etc, and how their profit based motivations effect our heath, our democracy, and what you read or hear about our government. It is, and always will be, in the insurance industries best interest to make our government programs look like a complete failure, whether it’s true or not, whether it’s their doing or ours. If the government provides coverage for the “uninsured”, the Capitalists can’t get that profit, no matter how it’s paid for.
The anger and frustration come from being emotionally manipulated. It comes from not being able to argue because your beliefs are based on second hand opinions and third party authorities. The anger is intentional.