A widespread tactic used by many conservatives lately is claiming that the Obama administration is out of touch with mainstream America. Common tea party rhetoric includes “taking back” America and equates the current administration to the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

Conservatives paint Washington as a secluded place with guard dogs and moats, where no common men are allowed. They describe a federal government where a concentrated few liberal elitists devise schemes to take over America and turn it into a Communist dictatorship.

The rhetoric presents an “us versus them” scenario in which an elitist liberal minority forces unwanted policies down the throats of an oppressed conservative majority. However effective and appealing this approach may be, it is hardly rooted in reality.

Unfortunately for them, this entire mentality is a giant example of confirmation bias. They ignore reality, so that when conservative talking heads say that the health care bill is something that Americans don’t want, they buy it wholeheartedly. They like to think they are in the overwhelming majority and that the Obama administration simply ignores what the majority wants.

To get specific, a June 2010 Gallup poll found that 49 percent of Americans think of the recent health care legislation as a “good thing” while only 46 percent say it is a “bad thing.” With a narrow plurality, this certainly doesn’t conjure up images of an elitist few people cramming unpopular policies down the throats of millions. In fact, not all of the respondents reporting the bill as a “bad thing” thought it was too progressive or overreaching; many of them thought it didn’t do enough.

The presidential approval rating also is telling. Obama’s average approval rating, according to Gallup, is 53 percent. This is higher than President George W. Bush’s average of 49.4 percent, and slightly higher than GOP demigod Ronald Reagan’s average of 52.9 percent. But we didn’t hear theories about a right-wing conspiracy in which these administrations were shoving unpopular policies down Americans’ throats (at least they were not near as common as the current claims regarding the Obama administration).

Also, let’s not forget the humble fact that a majority of Americans voted for Obama for president, knowing what policies he would try to implement (Obama beat McCain 53 percent to 46 percent). This majority is more than Bush or his adherents can claim from the 2000 election, when Al Gore actually received more votes than Bush.

In fact, the 2008 election brought about a sweeping victory for the Democratic party. The Democrats took 59 of the 100 Senate seats and 257 House seats compared to 178 Republicans.

This unified Democratic government came about because voters wanted the policies that the Democratic Party had to offer. That party is now following through on what it campaigned on. How conservatives can deny this majority or its legitimacy is beyond my comprehension.

Do these victories and majorities necessarily mean that all of the policies the Democrats are pushing through are great? No, and I’m not trying to say they do. All I’m saying is that the moderate to progressive majority demonstrated their desire for a new type of government that would implement the types of changes that Obama campaigned on in 2000. The polls show that Americans favor, if ever-so-slightly, most of the major policies the administration is championing.

Conservative rhetoric claiming that they are in the vast majority and that the Obama administration is therefore ignoring what the majority wants is simply not true. You can paint yourself as in the mainstream majority and everyone to the left of you as a communist if you’d like (i.e. Fox News), but that doesn’t make it true.