Fundamental lack of understanding

A long time ago, back during the Clinton administration, I remember writing a piece on how the cynicism of the Clintonians was infuriating. My main beef was the feeling that they thought everyone in the country were morons who just needed to hear the right words to be convinced of the glory, rightness and righteousness of the Clintonians.

In other words, people are too stupid to know what's best for them, don't bother trying to explain the policy to them, because they wouldn't understand or would just let their small-minded bitter-clinging world view get in the way. The little people should not interfere, but should let their betters take care of things for them.

They follow the George Lakoff version of politics: if you can just find the right words--like casting a confundus spell in Harry Potter--then you can make them agree with you. It's like magic! Don't call it the "public option" call it the "American Plan" and people will fall all over themselves to support it!

This, of course, is utter bunk. With a major change in the direction of the country, such as the complete reordering--on the government's orders--of 1/7th of the national economy, most people actually do look pastthe hand waving and the screaming to look at what is actually being proposed.

That's why the Tea Partiers are quoting directly from HR 3200 and bringing up specific proposals from the plan. They aren't listening to the politicians but are actually looking at the facts. (With no help from the media. Has an actual, extensive breakdown of HR 3200's proposals--all 1,000 pages of them--appeared in any major newspaper? Or is the media too fixated on the horse-race aspects? The media never seem to report on underlying proposals, just on the lies and carefully-crafted turns-of-phrase of the politicians.)

The Clintonians and the Obamaniacs both seem to be under the impression that facts don't matter, only the words you use to trick people. It drives me nuts.

This type of thinking does have one upside, though. It makes it very hard for people who think like this to actually convince people of their positions. If you think it is all hand-waving and manipulation, but if you are mistaken and it is really all about the facts and concrete proposals, you aren't even competing on the same playing field.