bullshit claims with a laughably inept parade of wonky details doesn't mean that the best approach is to say, well, they're bullshit, but since
we can't argue effectively against their assumptions, just remember that we're really smarter and nicer, too.
Somebody: People on the left often make this argument: that people otherwise drawn to reactionary ideas over what you call "wonky" liberal ones, would actually subscribe to radical left-wing notions if they were properly presented to them. How much of this is an article of faith?
I have no doubt it's *sometimes* true: a recent example is the health care bill, where more Americans supported the major provisions within it (some of which were modestly progressive, anyway), than the bill as a whole.
But, it's also often been the case that progressive or socialist policies have been presented in a conservative light to sell them to the people. This is the conservative or traditional aspect that we've seen in Stalinist dictatorships and Western European welfare states alike.