POLLS AND OBAMACARE

Remember what Ronald Reagan did with the world ‘liberal’. With voice inflection and syntax, he skillfully turned it into a “dirty” word. Newspaper reporters, TV talking heads, writers of letters to the editor, various columnists ether avoided using the word or used it to disparage the subjects of their attention. It wasn’t until after the liberal policies of Bill Clinton turned the government around that the word took on a positive connotation.

The Republican Party is diligently working to do the same thing to the word ‘Obamacare’. President Obama eloquently pointed this out in a speech the other day when he said that when it starts to work it would no longer be ‘Obamacare’.  As Steve Kornacki pointed out this morning on his show UP (MSNBC), we should look more closely at polling data on Obamacare, If pollsters ask if you like “Obamacare” verses asking if you like Affordable Care Act. The favorability ratings jump 10%.

Even a casual treatment of the polling data reveals that over one-third of those opposed to Obamacare opposed it because it is not liberal enough. Like Social Security, the people who benefit are the ones that pay for it. The part the government plays is in both programs is regulatory. It is not proportional redistribution of wealth as a socialist program would be; that is taxpayers money pays for health insurance for everyone.  If health care was equally available to everyone and the government pays (all taxpayers) for it that would be socialized medicine—very different from Obamacare.  Nonetheless, anathema to conservatives or not, that is what a large faction of the American people want.

 The confusion about the new health care law is positive proof that the Citizen United Decision of our activist Supreme Court that dumped millions of dollars into the laps of the right wing faction has had a negative impact on peoples thinking. Of course, advertizing works, even if it is negative advertizing—everybody knows that. The Karl Rove axiom of driving up candidates negatives is as important as driving down the positive rating of a candidate. The polls also show that when a major piece of legislation helps them, working people agree with it. It is unfortunate that Republicans don’t want to help working people; they want to help rich people and there is large faction of the Republican party membership that fails to realize they are working people.    

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