If you are of the opinion that government exists to improve the lives of its people, acting in the best interests of the majority, not just in the present but into the indefinite future (and I most certainly am) then you must, as a rational human being, be utterly at a loss as to why the Republican party and conservatives in general are so blindly and ignorantly opposed to public health care and literally everything else Obama and his administration have tried to move forward with in the past year. It smacks of childish obstinacy. Whiny spoiled brat tantrums and pouty stubbornness. Or worse — Old Guard cronyism and immensely powerful insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies. The truth is somewhere in the middle, I’m sure.
Democracy fails if one side of a two party system opposes progress simply to make the administration look impotent. It falls to the leading party to flex its muscle to continue serving its people. The simple fact is that somebody has to be the grownup. The interests of the public have to supersede political manoeuvring. The elected have a job to do.
So I applaud Obama for making 15 appointments while Senate was out. It saves untold truckloads of time and tax money that otherwise would have been wasted in political posturing and pointless bickering.
A year ago Obama’s approval rating was effectively near 80%. Now it’s about 52%. His administration has been besieged by an opposition bent on nothing more than taking the wind out of those sails. They have been effective in just that. And nothing more. Which is to say that the Republicans continue to beat the fuck out of a country that really doesn’t need it, rather than get on with their duty of helping America get back on its feet.
Those that disagree (but can still legitimately claim to have any understanding of the issue at all) will argue that Obama’s path gives too much power to the government. Too much regulation leads to a police state, or worse. We risk the freedoms we fought so hard for, and so forth.
It’s my personal belief that “freedom” means a certain level of protection from corporations that would otherwise cheerfully take every dime — and you know they would. “Freedom” also means safety from bankruptcy if I get sick — that’s not the case elsewhere in the world, but any country claiming to be “the best” should base that claim in the care it takes of its own, or so it seems to me. “Freedom” means confidence that if I pay into a system, that system will not fail me when I need it most. That means if I pay somebody for health insurance, they should not base their business model on denying my claim.
America has to become aware of the irony in resisting public health care while bailing out Wall Street and by proxy the insurers, in continuing to defend a system that will chew us up and look for more. Surely there has to be some way of waking everyone up to the fact that if we all agree to pay a little bit into a system that works for us, we will no longer have to pay a lot into a system designed to fail us, and it’s okay to give the government the power to mandate this on our behalf.
It is not in our best interest to let our vote be swayed by a very loud, very vocal minority party of very rich private citizens who represent very rich insurance and pharmaceutical companies. It does not make you a commie pinko to resist them. It makes you a sensible citizen. A Real American, if you like.
As far as I’m concerned, you stop being a sucker when you start thinking for yourself. And as soon as you do, you start wondering what the hell is up with the Republicans and why we put up with it at all.
Obama will not come out of this as a darling of the press. Fox will see to that. But he’s getting the job done, whatever it takes, and doing it well. I approve. Keep it up.