Why Georgia Voters Who Voted Down a $10 Tag Fee to Finance Trauma Care Are Simply Wrong

There is such a thing as an informed opinion.  Not all beliefs are equally valid, even widely held ones.  As Galileo reminded us a few hundred years ago, the popularity of an opinion does not prove it since so few people reason well.  
Anyone who believes that paying an extra $10 in tag fees is less costly than having an emergency room fold or someone die because a trauma center is beyond the golden hour away does not understand probability and statistics (which unfortunately is most people).  When we drive our cars, whether we get in an accident or not, we probabilistically bear the cost of the loss times the frequency and distribution of the loss.  You don't have to be an insurance company actuarial to realize one or two saved lives will offset a $10 fee.  For God's sake, that's 2.7 cents a day!  How can one claim to be pro-life but values that life at less than a nickel a day?
Taxes and insurance premiums both represent a trade-off most mature and intelligent adults accept (unless either is too high, which is not empirically true here).  In exchange for a  small certain loss ($10) we offset a potentially catastrophic but low probability loss (or in this case, help pay for it).  Those who want the benefit of an extensive trauma network, one of the best in the world, but don't want to pay for it are trying to get a free ride.  
If they understand this, then they are immoral.  If they do not understand this, then they are ignorant.  Some of course (Sarah Palin comes to mind) are a little of both.
I think it's time we stand up to the bullies spreading hate and misinformation just as President Dwight D. Eisenhower (a Republican of course) did in his time:  "There is a splinter group, of course, that believes that you can [attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs]... Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Their numbers remain negligible but they are rich and figured out that if you buy a news station you can buy an election by duping people into voting against their economic interests.  That's what they did here. This was the most expensive election in United States history and it wasn't even a presidential election!  Most of the billions spent went into nonsensical, misleading attack ads.  Sadly, those ads worked. 
As Goebbels, arguably the inventor of using modern media for propagandistic effect, put it best, a lie repeated often enough will be believed.