THIS UNDERSCORES THE CURRENT FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF THIS COUNTRY. IT’S NOT JUST A TUG OF WAR BETWEEN LEFT AND RIGHT. IT’S A STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE MIND AND THE HEART, BETWEEN EVIDENCE AND EMOTIONS, BETWEEN REASON AND ANGER, BETWEEN WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE BELIEVE.
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Since signing the health care reform bill, President Obama has been traipsing about the country trying to sell it. It’s not really working for him.
According to a CBS News poll released on Friday, President Obama’s approval rating on health care sank to a personal low: 34 percent. (His overall approval rating in the poll was also a new low for him: 44 percent.)
This is in large part because of Republican recalcitrance. The left loves him. The right not so much. Actually, not at all. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, Obama’s job approval rating among Republicans was a measly 9 percent. On health care, his approval rating was an even-more-measly 7 percent.
Why? The Apostles of Anger in their echo chamber of fallacies have branded him the enemy. This has now become an article of faith. Obama isn’t just the enemy of small government and national solvency. He’s the enemy of liberty.
This underscores the current fight for the soul of this country. It’s not just a tug of war between left and right. It’s a struggle between the mind and the heart, between evidence and emotions, between reason and anger, between what we know and what we believe.
This conflict was captured in a tit-for-tat between Obama and Rush Limbaugh. In an interview with CBS this week, Obama complained about the “vitriol” coming from the likes of Limbaugh: “I think the vast majority of Americans know that we’re trying hard, that I want what’s best for the country.”
Limbaugh shot back on Friday, “I and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do what’s best for the country.”
And there it was. Obama’s language focused on what people “know,” or should know. He seems to find comfort in the empirical nature of knowledge. It’s logical. Limbaugh’s language focused on what he thinks people “believe.” Beliefs are a more complicated blend of facts, or lies, and faith. And, they can exist beyond the realm of the rational.
This focus on faith has allowed people like Limbaugh to mislead and manipulate large swaths of the right.
According to another Quinnipiac poll released last week, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to say that they follow public affairs most of the time. But how? They listen to people like Limbaugh, and they’re more likely than others to watch Fox News.
But invectives are not information. For example, a poll released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that most Republicans say that they still don’t understand how the new health care reform will affect them and their family.
They don’t know what it means, but they believe it’s bad. Rush & Co. said so. In the vacuum of confusion and misinformation, they strum their fears and feed their anxiety. And, by worrying, their faith is made perfect.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Saturday, April 3rd 2010 at 8:31PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
