Conservative pollster Frank Luntz recently provided right wingers on Capitol Hill a secret 28-page memo entitled The Language of Healthcare 2009—which has leaked! The memo was intended to offer a message framing strategy to defeat President Obama’s plan to provide health care for all. But the document is more useful to progressives than conservatives. Full Story »
Posted by Patricia Blochowiak
Because this article promotes the continued politicization of the healthcare issue, the perspective it offers is of only limited usefulness. No where, for example, does the article allude to the fact that government-sponsored healthcare need not interfere with patient choice and timely access--witness the French and Japanese sytems, which do neither. Nor does the article address the legitimate right-wing complaint that SOME national healthcare systems (the English and Canadian systems, for example) are plagued by heavy-handed government interference. Very useful if you yourself are invested in political games--otherwise, hardly worth one's time.
I find it shocking that ideologues--both on the left and the right--have seized control of this issue and care only that THEIR side prevails. No where do I see reasoned debate of the issues; rather the primary focus seems to be on how to defeat the "opposition." Well, the OPPOSITION in this case has become US!!! Thus the prevailing political strategy becomes self-defeating in the extreme.