A fifth of Americans polled think the health reform bill has been repealed.
And another quarter aren’t sure.
There, in rather stark terms, is a synopsis of the American electorate’s engagement in – and awareness of – the health care debate.
The news, from the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll is the clearest indication to date of the lack of effective reporting by the media on the health reform battle. That, and a blunt assessment of at least half the respondent’s knowledge of civics.
It is easy to blame the media – and some blame is well deserved. But much more should be assigned to those ill-informed, and uneducated, respondents. These people, some of whom may actually vote from time to time, are almost certainly basing their political opinions and candidate preferences on opinions that have little basis in reality.
The onus is on us. We have to inform ourselves, understand the process, intent, and implications of public policy. We have to engage with others on the basis of fact and insight, not emotion-based opinion. We need to check our sources, and question our assumptions.
If not, we’ll end up electing more Rick Scotts and Rob Blagojoviches.
And that is a very scary proposition.
Feb
25
One small correction Joe. It’s Rod Blagojevich. Other than that I agree with you. I find there are folks who not only are uninformed, but worse believe they are informed because they listen to a single news source and accept whatever is reported as fact. In this most partisan era, I don’t think there are any unbiased news sources left. I think we all have to become critical thinkers and use multiple news sources for information and then fact check each of them.
Winston Churcill siad the best argument against democracy is a 5 minutes conversation with the average voter