THE BBC MISSES IT AGAIN – AT 10:27 A.M. ET:  Our wonderful contributor, Renee Nielsen, alerts us to the fantasyland of the BBC, the world's most overrated news organization. 

The arrogance and ignorance of this piece are breathtaking.  It proves that the BBC either knows nothing of the United States, or prefers not to know.  Or, it knows, and distorts, the better to serve the leftist party line.   By the way, Renee recommends that you also listen to the audio version, which is more complete, and gives the full patronizing flavor of the BBC report.  That's here.

From the BBC:

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

When you see the word "obvious" in story, run in the other direction.  The floodgates of arrogance are now open.  Can't these fools see what we superior people see?

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.

Did it ever occur to the BBC that Americans don't think the "reform" bill is reform at all?  But, of course, what could the peasants know?  Do they brush their teeth?

Also, will someone drop a note to the "reporter" informing him that Texans get health care whether formally covered or not.  What true reformers want is to improve the system, end bad practices, and make access easier.  But people do not die in the streets, which is the image the Beeb would like to project.

Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.

Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?

Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?

Boy, are you getting this?  One of the reforms Americans do want is the ability to buy insurance across state lines, vastly increasing competition and driving the bad guys out.  We don't love insurance companies. 

Inefficient system?  Say what?  Compare please to the British system, where people can wait weeks or months for an operation, or even to see a specialist.  Our system needs improvement, but, if you need a serious operation here, you'll have it that night.

But, incredibly, the BBC does show a glimmer of understanding:

If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them.

They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best.

There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots.

Don't get too excited.  The story reverts back to a patronizing view of Americans.  But at least the reporter understands that health care is deeply personal, and that the American people resent the way they've been treated during the debate. 

Back to the patronization:

The Republicans have learnt how to stoke up resentment against the patronising liberal elite, all those do-gooders who assume they know what poor people ought to be thinking.

Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America's poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Huh?  More Wall Street money was raised by Obama for the last election than by McCain.  True, the GOP can get too cozy with big business, but Dems haven't been far behind.  Both have indulged the corporations.   

And Americans vote on a whole list of values, and have felt, especially since the sixties, that the Democrats may not represent those values.  That includes national defense and a respect for standards in education. 

The BBC writer does make an honest effort to understand Americans, and does, we must concede, recognize that their anger is directed at snobbish political elites.  But what gets you in this piece is the belief that, somehow, Americans are angry people blinded to their own interests.  Yes, I suppose that sometimes happens.  Lincoln said that you can fool all the people some of the time.  But one wishes that the Beeb would study how liberal politicians fool people, especially minorities, and do so regularly.  We've seen it with our own eyes here in New York, which is why New York City, with a four-to-one Democratic registration, hasn't elected a Democratic mayor since 1989.  People do notice, and they're not stupid.

January 31, 2010