Part of the debate over health care and health insurance is an argument over word choices. Every side uses words intended to persuade people before they even think about it. But can one side or the other win the argument by winning the war of words? According to Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, when people are faced with difficult issues that are not that easy to comprehend they listen for clues. The health care debate is full of complex issue and difficult words therefore not everyone can understand. According to Frank Newport if you can grab the public’s attention with the words you use then that is what they typically agree to in the short term. What are your thoughts? Does the power of words have a controlling factor on what we agree to?
Absolutely! Madison Avenue entered the American psyche long ago. It is a huge “industry”. The average person, NO, the overwhelming majority of people are focused on earning a living, raising their children, taking care of their loved ones and seeking happiness. Sound bites, bullets, whatever you want to call them are all most of them have or make time for. But, the devil IS in the details. It is increasingly difficult to have a democracy when (in spite of the deluge of “news” albeit from an increasingly illiterate and ideological press) the populace is so woefully uninformed.