brain washed or just plain stupid?

Only 66% of the population of the great state of Texas has full health insurance. Over one fifth of children there have no cover at all. Yet the opposition to health care reform in Texas runs at 87%. Texans apparently believe the legislation is socialist, godless, and a step on the road to a police state. Why they would have such ridiculous and outrageous ideas is anyone's guess.

It is not often that one finds people so determined to vote against what is to their immediate personal benefit. In this age of smart phones, smart bombs and smart cars, it seems we are left with a whole lot of dumb people.

According to Drew West, in his book Political Brain, people are not stupid. He argues the reason why people vote against their own interests is not because they do not understand what that interest is, or have not had it explained to them. It is apparently because they consider having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know better is seen as a betrayal.

Let me get that straight. If a politician were to offer you $100,000 cash -I think that is an underestimate of what good health insurance is worth, but so be it- you would say no because you felt that having someone else, who acts like they know better, decide what is best for you is a betrayal?

I agree that the reasoning sounds really smart, but I doubt that anyone would say no to a $100,000 check. No matter how much they hate being treated like idiots. Because idiots is what they are. If they can't see that this healthcare reform is directly going to benefit them, they must be idiots.

Let me offer an explanation that makes a bit more sense. First of all, these people are not too bright. I know one is never supposed to say that and it threatens to derail a good argument and prevents people from listening to me, but I would say it needs to be said. These people are not too smart.

Second, and because they are not too smart, they are very suspicious. That too is quite common. People who aren't too bright are often taken advantage of and all of them must have lots of painful childhood memories where smart looking people got the better of them. That has fueled a strong aversion towards sweet talkers. And what better sweet talkers than politicians? It is obvious these people are unlikely to listen to politicians. But Europe has lots of dumb people too and that has not prevented them from acting this way. So there is more.

Apart from being suspicious, the not-so-bright are also paranoid. They are afraid, and they are very susceptible to the Harry and Louise type ads. Those types of ads never aired in Europe and Europeans had good healthcare long before TV ads could brainwash them.

These ads play on important fears: -that one will not have access to the best doctors. Note that none of these people has access to such doctors now, because they cannot afford to go there.

-that care will be denied to save money for the government. Note once again that these same people are now barred from care because they cannot afford it or because their insurance company will not pay or threatens to dump them.

-that government bureaucrats will make decisions for them. Note that company bureaucrats already do so for insured Americans. There is no equivalent of that in Europe.

-that the country will turn to communism. This one is for the patriots. Note that all Western democracies except the US have solid healthcare systems without being communists.

-that the deficit will skyrocket. This one is for the more sophisticated among the dummies. The ones who want to show off to their kids and peers by pretending they are Wall Street tycoons. The ones who think they can afford to be worried about the debt burden.