Aaron Williamson's webl

I was on the treadmill when this segment on CNN about conservatives’ opposition to Obama’s health care policies made me wheeze uncomfortably with laughter.  A swiftboat organization called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights–led by disgraced, corrupt healthcare CEO Richard Scott–has paid $20 million for a piece of the media spotlight on the issue.  The campaign demonstrates everything that is wrong with 21st-century conservative politics, the casting of corporate-interest lobbying as grassroots campaigning being first among the problems.

But what got me laughing was Scott’s pithy demonstration of another problem: conservatives’ refusal to acknowledge the complexity of political issues or the merits of opposing arguments.  No doubt on the advice of his swiftboat-PR consultants, Scott blithely dropped this line during his CNN spot:

Are the decisions that I make with my doctor for my care going to be dictated by some federal bureaucracy? That’s very scary.

I won’t bother connecting the dots.  Suffice it to say that I think it’s disingenuous for conservatives to rally under this particular banner.