Demagoguery Verses "Sounding the Alarm"

Republicans voted en masse for Paul Ryan’s budget. Ryan’s budget ends Medicare as we know it – as a government run guaranteed health insurance plan covering all senior citizens – and replaces it with government “subsidies” (a.k.a. “vouchers”) which seniors would use to purchase health insurance from private insurers.

Ryan’s plan is deeply unpopular. However, instead of defending the plan on its the merits, the vast majority of Republicans are complaining about Democratic “demagoguery” on the Medicare issue.

For the record, “demagoguery” occurs when a leader uses false (or misleading) and inflammatory rhetoric to secure popular support. Republican allegations that the Affordable Health Care Act contained “death panels” and constituted “a government takeover of heath care” were demagoguery - they were both false and inflammatory and were used to win an election. To the contrary, the Democrats’ allegation that Republicans voted to “end Medicare as we know it” is not demagoguery - it is a fair and accurate description of what Republicans did.

Of course, there is demagoguery on the issue. The commercial in which someone dumps a wheel-chair bound senior off a cliff could fairly be considered demagoguery by those who think Ryan’s policy will work. That is because the ad unfairly assigns a sinister motive to the policy’s supporters. But that is a far cry from Democrats pointing out that Republicans voted to “end Medicare as we know it.” That assertion is entirely true.

The key distinction between “demagoguery” on the one hand, and “sounding the alarm” on the other, is the truth or falsity of the speaker’s assertions. So, I’m sorry Republicans. If you’re going to vote for alarming policies, you should not object when your opponents sound the alarm.

Joe H.