We seem to be running around in circles trying to understand the alien thought processes of ordinary Americans who hate and despise the idea of universal health care. Here are the main theories:
a. They've got coverage from their employer and don't want any more of their taxes going to the poor.
b. They've got Medicare/Medicaid (almost 100 million do) and they don't want their benefits spread thinner.
c. Even if they have no coverage, they would rather suffer than have any more of their taxes going to the blacks and Mexicans.
d. Even if they have no coverage and aren't racist, they believe that God will protect their health, until He doesn't, in which case it's what they deserve, but they're sure God will make it tougher on queers and atheists.
We can't even figure out how many people reside in each of these factions, because the above opinions are so disgusting that image-savvy Americans would lie to a survey-taker about holding them.
It will take a lot of survey and focus group questions to sort out why people think the way they do. If I could pay for only one of them, my intent would be:
To discover whether opponents do or do not believe Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, et al, have a JUST health-care system compared to America.
The key word here is "just". I am interested, because I am basically a foreign-policy guy, in probing how many conservatives believe that the Outside World is evil, satanic, socialistic, deluded, or worst of all, a majority tyranny with which God's people will engage in apocalyptic war.
If I merely asked my wingnut sample or focus group if they thought these countries had better health care systems than America after I explained how they worked, presumably they would say NO. So I would naively point out that the people in these countries were more satisfied with their systems than we are with ours.
Here's what I think they would say:
"They're under bureaucratic tyranny! They're brainwashed by socialist government! They're intimidated by violent labor unions!"
Here's what I think they would mean:
"The very fact that a majority supports the system PROVES that it is unjust, because the poor, inferior majority overseas are welfare freeloaders who outvote the honest, productive citizens!"
If I am correct, then there is no point explaining to conservatives that a majority of Americans support reform or are unsatisfied with our system. Stop wasting our time, Baucus and Conrad.
A wingnut believes that America was founded as a Republic, not a Democracy. He believes that the masses will always conspire to steal the wealth of the hardworking entrepreneurs, and that is unjust. If he is himself poor, he is certain he has already had natural wealth stolen from him by the inferior masses and is thus a victim of injustice.
He would rather live in a just country, by his definition, than a healthy country.
While this is a sneaky way to get people to admit that they believe the poor don't deserve equal health care, it's not trivial. There is a divide in this country in the definition of justice that can't be changed by an infinity of logical arguments. The reason our enemies throw up barricades at the first Twitter from Rush is that they are united by the sincere belief that democracy and equality are unjust.
Of all the words that liberals have let conservatives steal and redefine, justice is the most fundamental. In 1933 we overwhelmingly agreed that the economic system was unjust and acted to change it. But it only happened because Americans had debated the meaning of justice intensely over the prior 75 years.
If we can't do the same in 2009, maybe it's because most Americans have forgotten that the government is meant to pursue justice over commerce, while a vocal minority has a radically perverse definition of justice that would also validate an armed revolution, secession, ethnic cleansing, disenfranchisement of women and minorities, and a theocratic police state.
Americans don't discuss justice with people different than themselves, so they don't know this is happening. If they talked about healthcare issues in terms of justice, they would find that (a) despite their fear of the risks of a new system, most of them think current healthcare practices are unjust, and (b) the minority that thinks these practices are just have horribly sick and cruel convictions on a wide range of issues.
Where are the surveys that ask us, what is just? and what is the government's role in justice?