Home / News /

The new Silent Majority

August 20, 2009 —

“And so tonight -- to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans -- I ask for your support.”

Richard M. Nixon

Nov. 3, 1969

Last month, writing about the first of two health care reform town meetings I’ve attended, I noted that while those who opposed the current version of health care reform from the right were the loudest and rowdiest, the greater number of those lining up at the microphones to complain about the plan opposed it from the left because it didn’t go far enough.

This turns out not to have been an isolated incident, but an overriding dynamic of the larger debate over health care reform.

All the red-faced town hall protesters combined have had nothing like the impact of the Obama Administration’s hint over the past weekend that it might be willing to drop the public option alternative to private insurers in order to get the remainder of its health care package passed this fall.

According to a Rasmussen survey released Wednesday, support for the plan among Democrats dropped in only a week’s time from 69 percent to 50 percent, and strong support among all voters – the sort of fire in the belly needed to counteract conservative protests – dropped from 26 percent among all voters to 9 percent after the administration floated the suggestion it might retreat. Support for a bill without the public option increased only slightly among Republicans and independents, meaning the administration’s attempt at a compromise hurt the bill’s chances far more than it helped.

Seemingly caught off guard by this reaction, the administration has back-pedaled over the past couple of days and reportedly is studying the option of splitting the massive package into two parts. Democrats are talking openly about going it alone, with no attempt to involve Republicans in crafting the plan. Meanwhile, the liberal backlash is catching wind, with calls for a mass march in September in support of the the public option.

This swift reaction from the left is completely at odds with the impression of angry conservatives rising up in record numbers to protest any more toward more government involvement in the health care system. There have been conservative protests, to be sure, and there are a lot of Americans who are worried about health care reform backfiring – especially seniors, concerned about cuts in Medicare, the government-run program they already have.

But just as Richard Nixon complained the media was paying too much attention to those who were in the streets protesting the war in Vietnam and not enough to those who stood by watching, liberals are beginning to push back at the way the media has characterized this controversy.

Television is drawn by nature to loud and angry, as much or more today as in 1969, when Nixon spoke to the country about the war in Vietnam and made that famous phrase, “the silent majority,” part of the political parlance. It has had a field day this summer with the semi-automatic-toting militiamen, the right-wingers enraged over galloping socialism and the constituents whipped up into a fright over the prospect of euthanasia for gramps.

Even if some sectors of cabletopia have discredited the claims of “death panels,” and various news organs have reported on how these protests have been orchestrated by interests close to the insurance industry and other corporate opponents of the plan, all the media attention has helped foster the impression that the energy and the numbers are on that side.

Just as conservative opponents have been coached in how to shout down members of Congress, sit near the front to capture attention, and hang on to the microphones to dominate the question periods, there has been a concerted effort to kite their numbers. Consider the rally last weekend in Atlanta which featured former US Rep. Dick Armey and other plan opponents. While police estimated the size of the crowd as about 3,000, organizers claimed it drew between 10,000 and 12,500. Here’s a video of the event with several shots of a crowd which looks much closer to the size estimated by the cops.

None of this is to say there haven't been conservative opponents of the plan who have come out to town hall meetings to voice their opinion. There have been, just as there have been people lining up to complain that Democrats should have gone all in and shot for a single-payer system. But neither of these wings represents the mainstream.

If there is a true silent majority in this debate, it is constituted by those in the middle who have been turned off by this muddled debate and have grown wary of both sides. As the debate moves into a new phase, this broad middle may be clearing its throat and preparing to be heard.

Those who think we really do have “the best health care system in the world,” even though we’re a country mile from having the healthiest population, the lowest costs or the fairest system of delivery, are in a distinct minority. Even thoughtful conservatives wary of the administration’s plan recognize that the system needs a lot more than a couple of aspirin and a winning bedside manner to get well. There may not be a consensus yet over a cure, but there's widespread agreement the patient is sick.