By Patrick H. Caddell & Douglas E. Schoen
In The March of Folly Barbara Tuchman asked Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?
Her assessment of self-deception acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama & the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform.
Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November.
In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.
As pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter & Bill Clinton respectively we feel compelled to challenge the myths that seem to
be prevailing in the political discourse and to once again urge a change in course before it is too late.
At stake is the kind of mainstream common-sense Democratic Party that we believe is crucial to the success of the American enterprise.
Bluntly put this is the political reality:
First the battle for public opinion has been lost.
Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails as appears possible Democrats will face the brunt of the electorates reaction. If it passes however Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.
Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats current health-care plan. Yes most Americans believe as we do that real health-care reform is needed. And yes certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.
However a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan.
Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it according to Rasmussen polling this week while only half of those who support the plan
do so strongly.
Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.
The White House document released Thursday arguing that reform is becoming more popular is in large part fighting the last war. This isnt 1994; its 2010. And the bottom line is that the American public is overwhelmingly against this bill in its totality even if they like some of its parts.
The notion that once enactment is forced the public will suddenly embrace health-care reform could not be further from the truth -- and is likely to become a rallying cry for disaffected Republicans independents and yes Democrats.
Second the country is moving away from big government with distrust growing more generally toward the role of government in our lives.
Scott Rasmussen asked last month whose decisions people feared more in health care: that of the federal government or of insurance companies. By 51 percent to 39 percent respondents feared the decisions of federal government more.
This is astounding given the generally negative perception of insurance companies.
CNN found last month that 56 percent of Americans believe that the government has become so powerful it constitutes an immediate threat to the freedom and rights of citizens. When only 21 percent of Americans say that Washington operates with the consent of the governed as was also reported last month we face an alarming crisis.
Health care is no longer a debate about the merits of specific initiatives. Since the spectacle of Christmas dealmaking to ensure passage of the Senate bill the issue in voters minds has become less about health care than about the government and a political majority that will neither hear nor heed the will of the people.
Voters are hardly enthralled with the GOP but the Democrats are pursuing policies that are out of step with the way ordinary Americans think and feel about politics and government.
Barring some change of approach they will be punished severely at the polls.
Now we vigorously opposed Republican efforts in the Bush administration to employ the nuclear option in judicial confirmations. We are similarly concerned by Democrats efforts to manipulate passage of a health-care bill. Doing so in the face of constant majority opposition invites a backlash against the party at every level and at a time when it already faces the prospect of losing 30 or more House seats and eight or more Senate seats.
For Democrats to begin turning around their political fortunes there has to be a frank acknowledgement that the comprehensive health-care initiative is a failure regardless of whether it passes. There are enough Republican and Democratic proposals such as purchasing insurance across state lines malpractice reform incrementally increasing coverage initiatives to hold down costs covering preexisting conditions and ensuring portability that can win bipartisan support.
It is not a question of starting over but of taking the best of both parties and presenting that as representative of what we need to do to achieve meaningful reform. Such a proposal could even become a template for the central agenda items for the American people: jobs & economic development.
Unless the Democrats fundamentally change their approach they will
produce not just a march of folly but also run the risk of unmitigated disaster in November.
Patrick H. Caddell is a political commentator & former pollster. Douglas E. Schoen a pollster is the author of The Political Fix.
