The Transformation (2)

The text I published last week was revealing and surprising to me. Here is another quotation about how Americans do and love politics:

"So, the new NBC poll, the new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll that came out. If this poll were a medical test, the resulting diagnosis would be schizophrenia. I mean, no offense to schizophrenia. Look at this. Do you favor the basic idea of reforming he immigration system? Do you favor a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants? The answer, yes, 57 percent of the country favors that. OK. How about if we achieve that goal the way President Obama says he wants to? Do you favor a pathway for undocumented immigrants that also requires them to pay a fine and any back taxes and to pass a background check, like the president want? Do you want that? The answer: yes, with an exclamation point -- 74 percent yes. We love that idea. As a nation, we love what the president wants to do to reform immigration policy. Great. That seems very simple. Now that the president is going to act on immigration policy, let`s ask about that. Do you favor what the president is about to do? No. No. We love this policy. We hate this policy. How dare this president does what we want? Here`s my other favorite. They asked people what the newly elected Congress should do in Washington. What do you want them to do? And this is the list of ranked policies -- policies ranked in terms of what people want the new Congress to do. Look at the top five. 

The top  five most popular policies the American people want this Congress to pursue are: 

• number one, lowering the cost of student loans, also 
• increase spending on infrastructure, 
• raising the federal minimum wage, 
• approving more money to fight Ebola, and 
• limiting carbon emissions to fight climate change. 

Those are the five most popular policies on the whole list of things that Congress should do. The top five are all things that the Republicans who were just elected to lead the Congress are adamantly opposed to. So, as a nation, we just elected a Congress that has pledged to fight tooth and nail against the policies that we most want to see enacted. And here`s the best part. When asked are you happy with what you just did, are you happy with electing this new majority that`s pledging to stand against everything you want, does that seem like a good thing? The answer is yes. Yes, very happy with the result of the election. So, Americans want very specific things for the country. And we`re also delighted to elect the people who will stop the country from getting those things. It`s almost like people don`t really know what`s going on in politics. Or they don`t really know what decisions are being made and by whom in Washington. It`s almost like the public isn`t that well-informed about who wants what, what`s going on with policy and politics that even on issues that they say they care about. It`s almost like we don`t know."

Rachel Maddow, in the Rachel Maddow Show on November 19, 2014