a href="http://www.delawareliberal.net/2009/06/22/health-care-why-is-a-public-option-considered-controversial/"Unstable Isotope had a good post/a up a few days back regarding the fact that most polls agree that 72% of the American people want a public option in healthcare. Aside from the fact that you can't get enough information into a single question to move beyond people's preferences for the concept of a public option (which they may or may not endorse when they see the details), I don't dispute the polling.br /br /What interests me is the conclusion drawn by UI at the end:br /br /blockquotespan style="font-style:italic;"This is a huge majority of people. I sure hope Democrats can find a spine to get real health care reform. span style="font-weight:bold;"I’m getting a bit tired of the Congress thwarting the will of the people./span A public option for health care is not controversial! People are not buying the status quo defenders scare tactics about wait times and protecting the profits of those poor, put-upon health insurance executives./span/blockquotebr /br /What I am left wondering is at what polling point ithe will of the people/i kicks in.br /br /According to the most recent a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm"ABC News/WaPo poll/a in April, span style="font-weight:bold;"74% of Americans support stricter immigration controls/span.br /br /According to the most recent a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm"Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll/a in May, span style="font-weight:bold;"66% of Americans support either gay marriage or civil unions/span.br /br /According to the most recent a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm"CBS News/NYT poll/a this month, span style="font-weight:bold;"62% of Americans support stricter limitations on abortion or making it completely illegal/span.br /br /According to the most recent a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/energy.htm"Gallup Poll/a in March, span style="font-weight:bold;"59% of Americans support or somewhat support increased use of nuclear power plants to address our energy problems/span.br /br /Of course, you can often avoid this thorny issue of ihow much above 50% does a poll have to go before it becomes a magic mandate/i by simply choosing the poll that fits your pre-existing beliefs.br /br /According to the June 2009 a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/race.htm"NBC News/WSJ poll/a, span style="font-weight:bold;"63% of Americans believe that Affirmative Action is still necessary/span, while a similarly dated a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/race.htm"Quinnipiac University poll/a maintains that span style="font-weight:bold;"55% of Americans think Affirmative Action should be abolished/span.br /br /If you select your polling outfit as carefully as polling outfits select their response pools, you can pretty much prove that a majority of the American people believe almost anything.br /br /President Clinton practiced government by itriangulation/i and Speaker Gingrich used only items polling well above 50% in his iContract with America/i. Both were politically successful with that strategy, but it then raises disquieting issues of exactly why we are supposed to have a republic in the first place.br /br /Do I vote for a candidate because I trust her judgment, or do I vote for a candidate who will always follow the will of the majority?br /br /This is sort of like asking American Christians, do you get to Heaven by being saved [faith] or by living a good life [works]?br /br /To both either/or questions the American answer is usually a resounding iYES/i.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7893272060787897238-8369350840412996921?l=delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com'//div
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