“The interview I just heard is spin,” Graham protested. “I thought the campaigning was over. Are you trying to tell me and the American people that Scott Brown, got elected campaigning against a Washington bill that really is just like the Massachusetts bill? The American people are getting tired of this crap…. Graham went on to whack the White House on a host of other health-care-related fronts. He accused the president of “arrogance” in pushing legislation in a non-bipartisan fashion. And he called the idea of using reconciliation to get a bill passed a “sleazy process” that would “open up Pandora’s box.”…. “If they do this it is going to poison the well for anything else they would like to achieve this year or years after,” Graham warned.
What happens when you selectively (mis)interpret polls, and make broad, certain pronouncements based on whimsy and wishes? You get Lindsey Graham and his Republican ilk carrying water for the health care industry. It matters not what the polls actually say. They don’t care that when the health care plan is explained, a majority of Americans support reform. The fact that projections show the new plan actually REDUCING the deficit hardly seem to matter. What does matter is that Graham and his fellow Republicans believe in the Big Lie, and they know how effective it can be. Repeat something often enough and with enough conviction, and it will inevitably become the truth. It certainly has for Republicans. Graham’s diatribe was simply proof that, on some level, they know they don’t have facts and truth on their side. What they DO have is a superior propaganda machine, and Republicans are far superior to Democrats when it comes to staying on message on parroting officially-designated talking points. Good Lord; listen to Republicans long enough and you can almost hear Frank Luntz clapping in glee as his talking points are faithfully parroted by a collection of well-coiffed White zealots.
At this point, Republicans know they’re on the losing end. They know that health care reform will pass. They’re reduced to pissing and moaning about reform being “forced down their throats”. It’s not so much fun when you’re on the losing end, and Republicans aren’t about to take losing lying down. Perhaps if they weren’t so transparent about being owned by the health care industry, they might have some credibility. When you consider that the industry’s campaign dollars have purchased unanimous, undying fealty from the minority party, it’s difficult to take the impotent bleating seriously.
How Republicans can in good conscious oppose reforming a health care system that would embarrass a Third World country defies rational explanation. The only plausible explanation is that Republicans simply don’t care about Americans who don’t spend their work days wearing $1500 suits. They just don’t care…and you’d think that they might be able to use their time in the minority to figure this out. Yeah, right…. Republicans care about three things: money, power, and money…and not necessarily in that order.
Memo to the American Sheeple: this is what you get when you continually vote against your own best interests.
