For instance Republicans have announced forcefully there is no need for health insurance reform, that everything is pretty much okay as it stands and the President's plans are going to bring Communism to our shores. It is obvious to any human being that our insurance system is a total rip-off designed to squeeze profits out of sickness, a technique that involves denying coverage, refusing to pay, forcing patients to struggle with mounds of paperwork to get what should be theirs by virtue of premiums paid. Yet when Democrats offer a reform people without insurance shout them down. I recall early on in the campaign a protester injured at an anti reform event had no insurance to cover the costs of the injury!
Consider the campaign of presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated war veteran running on the Democrat ticket against President George Bush the Younger, a man who evaded military service by joining the Alabama National Guard and failed to report for duty there as required. yet Kerry's war record was wrecked and he lost horribly and the draft dodger (not forgetting the Vice President who famously advised he had "more important things to do" when asked why he was deferred five times) got re-elected by people who loudly proclaim their loyalty to the military and to some brand of patriotism known only to them.
Consider the budget deficit, run up to astronomical heights by a consistent policy of cutting taxes and increasing spending. This craziness took off under President Reagan and has continued to this day. When it is pointed out to conservatives that President Clinton left office with a budget surplus, this achievement, unique is decades of governance, is simply shrugged off. And those famously loud crass "patriots" bay for the blood of socialist "democrats." Do we recall how the right wing nutters warned us ominously of President Obama's plans to take away people's guns? These are the "patriots" who cheered President Bush on as he claimed the right of the President to be above the law, to allow any surveillance of US citizens, to permit torture and to hold suspects indefinitely without trial or even access to lawyers? we still have our guns but our civil liberties are more eroded than ever.
I wish I understood why Democrats can't confront these Republican myths and put them where they deserve to be, out of sight under some moldy militia rock somewhere. But there again, expecting Democrats in leadership positions to stand up for anything to anyone is asking a bit too much. Perhaps I should join the tea baggers and demand to see a Presidential birth certificate. that would show those Dems!
8 comments:
I am confused by what seems to be a no brainer and key to healthcare reform. Why are the Dems not willing to agree to tort reform? With a significant percentage of costs going to settle law suits, why do they steadfastly refuse to consider this change? It never even seems to be on the table.
I think tort reform is another Republican smokescreen, a way to deny working people who are damaged any right to redress. They reformed it in Texas, and guess what? No change in costs. This sort of myth is eactly whatI'm talking about.
So there's some progressives getting a group together call the Coffee Party (I have links to it on my blog). They are demanding reason in public discourse. But that ultimately is a joke because this is how a reasonable discussion goes with one of the participants being decided unreasonable (I know because I was married to someone just like this in another life)--
The democrats want something that they know the Republicans don't want. They say, "Okay so we want to reform healthcare-- here's how we can do this..." (although the same will be said of financial reform). The Republicans say "No!" and their idiot base goes wild because they're standing up for their principals in spite of the liberal media's pressure to cave. So the democrats go back and add more of what they think Repubs want and say , "Please, will you talk about it now?" The republicans say "NO!" to much applause by the Peanut gallery once again.
Their base is fired up because of the great principals of their leaders while the democrats look like the pansies they rightfully are. And the democrat base is demoralized and doesn't turn out to vote.
Of course there is also the problem, I think, that too many democrats don't want any reform anyway and it's a no brainer to let the Republicans be the bad guys for their base. Then they go home and say "We tried, honest we did. You saw!" Bollocks!!! Reconciliation would have been trying!
Oh and I should add a full disclaimer. I did join the Coffee Party because I am still idealistic enough to hope that we can and should fight back even if it's just demanding Reason in Public discourse! Oh and I found out about it on the Daily Kos which I visited after your post.
I saw that and was wondering where it may lead.
Your point about the dems caving is briought home by President Obama adding four republican demands to his health insurance reform plan. and so it goes.
Democratic governance is always about compromise. If you look at how government has grown and changed in the last century, the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that liberal principles have crushed conservative ones. Since Reagan, conservatives have merely kicked big government in the shins a few times, while letting government expand even more. It's borderline farcical. It's ugly. It's not pretty, but until Reipe shows up on my ballot demanding to be dictator of all for life, it's all we've got.
Read What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank. Sums up the whole thing pretty well. In a nutshell, the Republican War on Education combined with control of America's media by the Right has created a nation of ignorant doofs...
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
Brilliant book!!!
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