"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual
ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched
the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost
money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the
plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby." -- H.L. Mencken
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." -- Charles Mackay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
"A lot of people have no idea about all of this. People just don't know a lot about it, and the Kaiser poll pointed that out. I understand you've hired a contractor. I'm just worried that that's gonna be money down the drain because contractors like to make money ... I just tell ya, I just see a huge train wreck coming down." -- Max Baucus (R-MT), on HHS's efforts to educate the public about the Affordable Care Act
"What's happening here is that everything Senate and House Republicans
predicted with regard to Obamacare is coming true. ... This is, as the chairman of the Finance Committee said, 'a train
wreck.'" -- Mitch McConnell, on the Affordable Care Act itself (see above link for departure from context)
"If you click that share link, I will give you $5,000." -- Bill Gates, never.
I like Clay Bennett's take, because, while there is some prejudiced-but-honest misunderstanding in Republican ranks about the ACA, there is also a substantial amount of deliberate falsehood and sabotage going on.
No, I can't read their minds. But I can hypothesize that they get their shoes on the right feet by themselves each morning and that, even if they have a driver get them to the Capitol, that they find their offices on their own once there.
Which makes it impossible to believe that the accusation that those who voted in favor of the ACA "hadn't read it" is anything but a deliberate fraud, since the alternative is to believe that those who voted against it had read it in its entirety themselves, and that, by implication, Republican legislators read the full text of each and every bill prior to voting.
That does more than simply strain credulity. I would more readily believe that Bill Gates personally posted the above offer to Facebook than that GOP legislators personally analyze pending legislation verbatim.
Which is why I prefer Mike Luckovich's play on the same Republican talking point: Given that their mis-statements and false intepretations are, at least in large part, deliberate, they surely have to be banking on Mencken, and Mackay, being right.
And, so far, so good: Even when GOP sabotage goes wrong, the spinmeisters manage to turn it to their advantage. They've now got the booboisie convinced that Congress has exempted itself from Obamacare, when the legislation not only confirmed Congressional participation, but simply repaired the pending damage of a GOP poison pill.
So far, so good, indeed, despite Ben Sargent's mockery of the effort.
How dumb do they think we are? Well, how dumb do they know we are?
Still, it's one thing to pull off a monumentally destructive prank, and quite another to live with the results.
Pat Oliphant sounds a warning that Republican Cassandras have been expressing to no avail for a couple of years now. To recommend sane policy -- not even "for the good of the country" but "to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot" -- is to court the name "RINO" and banishment from party favor.
For the sake of the party, the hardliners had better be right, because they're evidently winning the argument.
For the sake of the country, they'd better be wrong.
As for Mencken, like most quotable political wits, he was, at heart, an elitist jerk whose admirable quotes are often outweighed by the despicable sentiments he also expressed.
Still, he understood the average citizen:
He is not at all responsive to purely intellectual argument, even when its theme is his own ultimate benefit, for such argument quickly gets beyond his immediate interest and experience. But he is very responsive to emotional suggestion, particularly when it is crudely and violently made, and it is to this weakness that the newspapers must ever address their endeavors. In brief, they must try to arouse his horror, or indignation, or pity, or simply his lust for slaughter. Once they have done that, they have him safely by the nose. He will follow blindly until his emotion wears out. He will be ready to believe anything, however absurd, so long as he is in his state of psychic tumescence.
And as for Bill Gates and his generous offer, well, maybe your Facebook list is better trimmed than mine, but I see daily evidence of the credulity of the average person, and I know that my newsfeed would shrink noticeably if Social Fixer could figure out a filter for "Stupid Crap That Five Seconds At Snopes Would Have Prevented A Ten-Year-Old From Posting."
Meanwhile, examine your heroes carefully and quote them selectively.
"Some say the ignorant classes need the ballot for their protection more than the rich. Well, they have had it and exercised it, and what have they done to protect their own interests? Absolutely nothing, because they did not know in what direction their interests lay, or by what system of legislation they could be lifted out of poverty, vice and ignorance, to enjoy liberty, justice and equality." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, proposing voter qualification tests, 1898
In my ideal world, Social Fixer would do more than just filter the crap. It would send a message to the sender saying "You didn't actually believe this crap, did you? Click here next time."
I know. No point.
Posted by: Nostalgic | 08/24/2013 at 05:15 PM
In my ideal world, Social Fixer would also manage to deliver a mild-ish electrical shock to whoever pressed the enter key or clicked the mouse to send that crap in the first place.
Posted by: Bill R | 08/24/2013 at 07:39 PM