Big Lies

If different months of the year reflect different personality types, then August must be the month for idiots and liars. All of the reasonable and responsible people are away on vacation so the field of play is left to the nutcases. This is particularly evident this August in the so-called debate (really what has become a shouting match) between the proponents and opponents of health care reform. The pity of it is that with all of the lies and disinformation that are being spread by opponents of health care reform, and the need by the supporters to constantly rebut them, ordinary people are being prevented from learning the facts and hearing about the real issues.

President Obama, who is an admirer of Abraham Lincoln, should recall that he once said that you can "Fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time". Lincoln, however, failed to note that in a democratically-governed society all you need to do is to fool most of the people most of the time, and you can get what you want.

That is the strategy that the Republican Party (the GOP -- Guardians of Profit) and their allies in the health insurance industry seem to be counting on to derail Obama's health financing reform agenda. Their preferred tactic is known in the public opinion and propaganda industry as the "Big Lie". It is really very simple to use and usually works quite well.

All one needs to do is to invent a lie so preposterous that most people will think that no one would ever say such a thing if it wasn't true. It is important that the lie be something that induces fear in people and that it be made to seem that the supposed fearful thing is being kept secret. Then one gets a lot of important people to repeat the lie over and over again at every opportunity.

This is why one is hearing about "death panels" and FEMA concentration camps as elements of Obama's health care proposal, and why loyal Republican operatives can be relied upon to repeat these canards on every cable channel new show that will give them a pulpit from which to broadcast their propaganda talking points. When one "big lie" gets debunked they just invent another one and the beat goes on. But all the while the real issues are never discussed as the electorate is being whip-sawed between the conflicting emotions of fear and hope.

The biggest lie the opponents of reform are using these days is the claim that America has "the best health care system in the world." If this is true, then of course there is no reason to reform it and doing so is only likely to make it worse. But this is a outright lie as any objective assessment of the facts would reveal. The three basic criteria for judging national health care delivery systems are access, quality, and cost.

The U.S. health care system does not provide universal access, as for instance, does France or Britain; the health outcomes for the American people are worse that those of many countries, for instance, Canada or Denmark, and the cost per patient to deliver poor care to only a portion of the population is the highest in the developed world. By any objective assessment the U.S. health care system is one of the worst systems found in any rich country, but many people continue to solemnly repeat the claim that it is the best. They do so because the statement has a positive emotional valence to patriotic people, because believing it undermines the argument for reform, and because they know that if it they repeat it often enough with enough sincere feeling, a lot of people will believe it is true.

The political game this month is to see which side can nudge the poll numbers a few percentage points in one direction or another. Recent polls have shown opponents of reform slightly ahead. After the Congress returns from its August recess, there will be a final "scrum" in which compromises will be accepted and deals will be made, and some kind of health care bill will be cobbled together. For members of Congress who are on the fence, or just being cagey, a shift in public opinion about health care reform could sway their votes and mean the difference between legislative victory or defeat for Obama's initiative.

Some commentators have compared the angry demonstrations and shouting at recent town hall meetings to the tactics used by fascist brown shirts in the 1930s. At the same time, Republican propagandists have suggested that Obama and the Democrats are Nazis; Rush Limbaugh has described Obama's healthcare logo as "right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook". Last week someone painted a swastika on the door of democratic congressman David Scott, and a woman at a town brawl demonstration held up a sign with a picture of Obama's face superimposed on a picture of a Nazi stormtrooper.

The opponents of health care reform, having unleashed the dogs "Fear" and "Anger" in order to prevent proponents of reform from actually answering questions from their constituents, are innoculating themselves against the charge that they are behaving like fascists by leveling this same accusation preemptively at their targets. Also, of course, everyone hates Hitler and the Nazis so getting that label to stick to Obama will carry a lot of emotional weight.

All of these tactics and techniques are well known. An earlier politician wrote the following about the use of big lies:

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true in itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

The author of his quote is Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X).

Addendum: For the story about who exactly were the expert liars who conspired together to create the myth of death panels see this story in the New York Times.