Part II: So here’s the problem:

(INT. TELEVISION STUDIO, DAY. PROBABLY MORNING.)

DEMOCRAT: What the plan calls for is an individual mandate – everyone has to buy insurance. If you get this through your job, or if you’re in Medicare or Medicaid, nothing changes. If you are currently buying your own insurance, or don’t have insurance, you will be able to choose from among several plans in a health exchange, which will have millions of customers and will be able to get the kind of rates that big companies get. If you can’t afford to buy insurance, we will have financial support available. And to make sure that the insurance companies don’t take advantage of a captive audience to just jack up rates, we will have the opportunity to buy into the same insurance program that members of Congress have, a non-profit program, which will help keep the insurance companies honest and prevent them being able to just gouge you for more money. And just to keep everything on the straight and narrow, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny you for pre-existing conditions or drop you because they don’t want to cover your illness. They will also have to cover preventive care and health maintenance issues, so you can take care of yourself before you get sick. And with no more wasting money on using the ER for primary care, and the benefits of catching disease and illness before it gets out of hand, everyone will end up saving money in the long run.

REPUBLICAN: DEATH PANELS! GOVERNMENT CONTROL! SOCIALISM! AAAAAAAUGH!!!!

MATT LAUER: Thank you both, we’ll be right back with more on Tiger Woods and a missing white girl.

(EXEUNT.)

This is the problem: there is no quick and easy way to explain the health care reform plan beyond the words I put in the mouth of the Democrat above. And the sort of people who broadcast news in this country are simply not bright enough to explain it. They are also unwilling to actually analyze the claims made by either side, whether through stupidity or malice. And honestly, pretty much every television journalist in the country is pussy-whipped by forty years of conservatives screaming “LIBERAL MEDIA” at everyone to the right of Pat Buchannan and terrified of being accused of bias. Consequently, absolute horseshit lies are passed off as an equivalent point of view, because any attempt to delve into the matter and determine the truth makes you some sort of filthy hippie liberal advocate. And since they’re too fucking stupid to understand what’s actually happening, your media presents the whole thing purely in terms of a horse race: who’s up, who’s down, who’s winning – completely oblivious to the practical reality at hand.

You want to know why Obama’s approval rating is 49%? It’s because liars, racists, and outright mental defectives are treated by our press as a legitimate part of the discourse, and the slackjawed yokels of the American public go right along with it. Call me an elitist, because I am, and I’ll own it proudly – the biggest problem with this country is that we treat stupid people like they’re worth taking seriously.