Do Americans really want healthcare reform? It’s complicated.

A lot of media — including NPR — have adopted the meme lately that health care reform now being contemplated is unpopular with most Americans.

Polls like this one, from Fox, suggest that over half of us actually prefer that Congress just drop the whole affair.

But Nate Silver, the left-leaning number-cruncher whose site has become must-read stuff for political wonks, has an interesting new take.

He points out that much of the “opposition” to healthcare reform comes from people who think the current Democratic proposal doesn’t go far enough.

He compiled this graphic (see above) to illustrate the range of views Americans have on reform.

There are plenty of polls to pull from, but my gut (I know, I’m in Stephen Colbert territory here) tells me this is about right.

What it doesn’t read — and this is the politically telling part — is how passionate people are about their views.

My guess is that most of the people who support this proposal (that 31% chunk) do so fairly unenthusiastically. It’s sort of, ‘If this is the best we can do, fine.’

Whereas the 35% who oppose the Democratic plan are far more vehement.

Silver concludes (and again, I agree) that the White House and Democrats have done an awful job selling their version of reform.

A fact which may come back to haunt them as this comes up for a vote, and again in 2010.