At least, that's what I'm sensing the religious right is trying to tell us in their latest revision of history about the Schiavo fiasco:
Concerned Women for America, living up to its name, is concerned about how polling data was used to mislead the American public during the Terri Schiavo case last month. The group says a "mass orchestration of public opinion, based on profoundly erroneous information" kept Americans in the dark about Terri's actual condition.Oh really? Oh yeah, that's right, she wasn't a vegetable. Her entire cerebral cortex hadn't turned to liquid, forever destroying her entire core essence. She was in fact only "disabled." The kind of person who would get a job at Wal-Mart and be in their diversity ads.
Then get this:
But CWA says when a new Zogby poll properly described the Florida woman's condition -- something the organization says did not happen in earlier polls -- 80 percent of respondents opposed the starvation order handed down by a Florida judge.See, now as the religious right likes to do, they never tell you what their poll actually said. Fortunately, I read the poll, and get what it really says:
A poll completed after the controversial death of Terri Schiavo finds that eight-in-ten (80%) likely voters say that a disabled person who is not terminally ill or in a coma, and not being kept alive by life support should not, in the absence of a written directive to the contrary, be denied food and water.Yes, the poll is talking about whether, for example, some guy who had his arm blown off in Iraq, but is otherwise happy and healthy and out playing baseball with his wife and kids and working his job at IBM, should be put to death against his wishes. Read that poll again. It's about putting disabled people to death who are alive and awake and happy and enjoying life. Well BIG DUH most people don't agree with that. Insert the word "vegetable" and then see what the poll says.
And in fact, once the poll language tracks more closely to the Schiavo case and the intervention of Congress and the White House and the religious right loons, the numbers plummet. But they don't tell you that.
Look at the results in the same poll that they DON'T tell you about:
Even using the fictitious and wrong "disabled people" phrasing, the public isn't on their side. Expect the religious right to spend the next few years trying to spin this issue their way - this is what they do. They're relentless with a message until it finally sticks.
