David Frum on health care

[grouchyoldcoot]

I wanted to bring this blog post to the attention of any of my friends who hasn't yet seen it. David Frum is a former speechwriter and staffer for Bush who maintains a very Republican blog. Here's what he has to say about the health care bill: http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo. The sort of fear-mongering that he's blaming for this 'waterloo' is

Comments

[genuinekfc]

I sent this link to my parents, who have been seeing similar comments made on the news discussion shows. Both sides routinely need the reminder that pundits do not have the same responsibilities as elected officials.

(In geekier news, it reminded me of an XKCD comic about the Ender's Game spin-off...)

[grouchyoldcoot]

The part I don't understand is why the successful Republican pundits (Glen Beck for example) are such total whack jobs. I mean, I find the *obviously* unbelievable after, like, 2 minutes of viewing. How do they get to be leaders of an entire political group?

[genuinekfc]

As Frum points out, the far-right motivates the party and brings out the voters. The elected officials forgot what the quieter moderates want.

I suspect that the regular viewers don't see the far-right as whackjobs. Example A: A distant relative collected books denying global warming. We couldn't convince him that scientists aren't writing as many books claiming it is happening, because it's been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Example B: A co-worker told me that he's seen a scary change in a friend who started watching Glen Beck. The guy used to have reasonably well-thought opinions; now his statements are more dogmatic and he distrusts mainstream media*. The guy seems indoctrinated.

*(Nevermind that Fox News has mainstream numbers. They sell themselves as the alternate news source.)

[bhudson]

To be fair, the GOP is trying to harness their anger for electoral purposes, but the teabaggers don't seem to like the GOP very much. Although, just like poor abused voting socialists have no part to vote for but the democrats, tea baggers will probably vote GOP anyway.

[grouchyoldcoot]

Ah, but the teabaggers can put up nutjobs against the Republicans they don't like in primary elections. Whether the nutjobs win or not, it's helpful to the Dems in the general elections. I've considered sending them donations, actually.

By the way, genuinekfc, I love your icon!