‘Cause you’re right.

Remember when in the 1980s, direct mail operations were the ace in the hole technical advantage for Republicans? My point being that politics is being made really interesting by the increasingly rapid pace of technological innovation, interesting in a bad way.

Centrally controlled (too strong a word but its late) political parties were/are always problematic, but they were institutions with prerogatives to protect. So, the sausage making was hidden and the opposition was often loyal. They were, among other things, a buffer between process and people.

Meanwhile, large swaths of the country are only minimally tuned in to the HCR debate. They overwhelmingly favor reform (if polls are to be believed), but aren’t dialed in to the particulars. I would hazard to guess that many are so busy making ends meet that they don’t have time or the energy to follow the legislative chess games.

I think that the majority of Americans don’t know much about HCR efforts but they have a negative impression of it despite liking the particulars when polled (via that Kaiser survery). Some of that is the back-room deals and sausage making process but some of that is a failure from HCR advocates to clearly and consistently represent what’s in the bill and how it helps them. I know a lot of people who are outraged over Nelson’s deal despite realizing after some consideration that fully funding Medicaid at the federal level is a great idea. And of course Nelson’s deal is like a tenth of a percent of the whole bill but that’s what bothers them.

But the legislative process is amazingly unchanged from when they arrived in buggies. That’s a really good point.

When i learn how to upload photos, I will show my two large purring darlings, if and only if, you show us a picture of Raven. You have a second cat right?

Cheers and lots of good wishes

Annie