Apropos of today’s fine editorial (“Political Poison”), there’s a dumb talking point going around on the Left (shocker!) that if the health-care bill were really as politically poisonous to the Democrats as the Republicans say, then why wouldn’t Republicans want it pass? Surely their obstruction reveals that they are worried the bill will prove to be very popular and politically beneficial to the Democrats.

Yes. Republicans are worried the bill will prove to be very popular. That is why they are, to a one, not only opposed to it but also working very hard to make their opposition to it central to their party’s brand. Why aren’t they making it easier for Democrats to pass this political poison? A two-part answer:

1. Just because the bill is unpopular doesn’t mean it will be easy to undo. Obama will still have the White House after 2010; he can block attempts to repeal it, and the longer it stays on the books, the harder it will be to dislodge it. Conservatives consider this a bad thing. Contrary to what some liberals think, opposition to the bill is not all about scoring a political win by handing the president a defeat. Some of us actually object to needless and destructive increases in the government’s size and power.

2. Making it easier for Pelosi and Co. to pass Obamacare would work against the GOP’s efforts to brand itself as the party that opposes Obamacare and supports something else. Also, it’s not exactly good politics to say, “Hey, we oppose this bill, but we’re going to grease the skids for its passage because, even though we think it will be really bad for the country, it’s going to be political poison for the other party and give us a big advantage in the next few election cycles.”

All this is explained by the Left’s Lakoffian tendency to view all conservatives as either cynical puppetmasters or hypnotized Tea Party drones — as either evil or stupid. For whatever reason they would rather not believe that some people actually have valid philosophical objections to their sweeping utopian plans. Sorry. It’s true.