So the crazy runs deep with the republicans, tea baggers, and conservatives (or am I being redundant?). The craziness combined with the simple petulance of the elected republicans completely over powers any reasoned criticism of HCR and (possibly with the assistance of the main stream media) totally prevents reasoned criticism from being heard and evaluated by the majority of Americans.
My complaints that the bill requires me to pay money directly to private corporations or face a financial penalty are simply out shouted by the screamer demanding secession. The criticism of the process which points out that Obama made secret (or rather attempted to keep them secret, but failed) deals with the pharmaceutical and for profit hospital industries, along with the fact that the final bill was mostly written by an insurance industry lobbyist, are drowned out by the republicans in Congress pulling petty and childish procedural games to prevent the bill from going forward and complaining that they didn't get 60 votes for a second vote, although there had been the 60 votes for the first vote. So the argument they are apparently making is that the majority should not rule any more, although they should with a mere 50 votes plus the VP when Bush was president, but not in the presidential elections apparently either, so it is hard to know just which argument we are going by at any given time. Perhaps it is the "When I got the votes I win, when I don't got the votes we wait until I do got the votes" theory of governance.
The same thing happened with Clinton. The crazies went so crazy that most people stopped listening to any criticisms of his policies and supported him as a person. (No not the high mucky mucks in the republican party nor the belt way pundits, but the average person who votes.)Suddenly criticizing Clinton became something that marked you as a person who, if you were not a crazy right winger, then you were giving aid and support to a crazy right winger. You were weakening all liberals and progressives, not with standing that Clinton was neither liberal nor progressive.
Same here, this is not an historic bill, it does not give the people what every democratic president for the last century wanted to give them. It is a conduit for money to the insurance, the pharmaceutical, and the for profit hospital industries, which provides some benefits as sort of collateral benefits to individuals. Try raising those issues and the screaming from the right about creeping socialism and from some of the left about how you want to kill people by keeping them from getting insurance completely drowns one out.
2 comments:
I've often written that Clinton's enemies seemed to be determined to make him look good. They certainly succeeded, and they made him a more sympathetic character, too.
The more extreme opposition is going to do the same thing for Obama.
I keep thinking about the end of the Roman Republic. And get more and more depressed.
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