Every big idea that works is marked by simplicity, by clarity. You can understand it when you hear it, and you can explain it to people. Social Security: Retired workers receive a public pension to help them through old age. Medicare: People over 65 can receive taxpayer-funded health care. Welfare: If you have no money and cannot support yourself, we will help as you get back on your feet.
These things are clear. I understand them. You understand them. The president's health-care plan is not clear, and I mean that not only in the sense of "he hasn't told us his plan." I mean it in terms of the voodoo phrases, this gobbledygook, this secret language of government that no one understands—"single payer," "public option," "insurance marketplace exchange." No one understands what this stuff means, nobody normal.
And when normal people don't know what the words mean, they don't say to themselves, "I may not understand, but my trusty government surely does, and will treat me and mine with respect." They think, "I can't get what these people are talking about. They must be trying to get one past me. So I'll vote no."
The above is a generous passage, but there's so much more; about how the President can learn from humility, as well as from history, specifically that of his predecessors.
They need to learn that at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, not just the 1600 block. When you insult people's intelligence in large numbers -- and you know who you are, Barney -- they will not react very well. They will not kiss your @$$ and say pretty please while you bus in a bunch of union goons in matching tee-shirts for moral support. They will not stop ranting long enough for you to take a cell phone call. They will not be polite. They don't owe it to you. They voted you in, you big dummy, and they can vote your @$$ out!
Come next year, unless they're as stupid as you think they are, they just might.
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