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winterbadgerOne Briton's take on the NHS
Not, of course, that the US is trying to implement an NHS-like system (would that they were!) But there seems to be so much misrepresentation of the NHS and the Canadian system in the rage-o-sphere that it's nice to hear someone trying to set it straight.
Having read, heard, and seen (on television, not in person) some of the supposed "voter rage" about healthcare, I think that I'm developing a very different take on the shouting tactics than I did to begin with.
I think it's good.
Because it's another sign that the GOP is really completely bankrupt, morally and intellectually. They are reacting they way they did during the latter portion of the presidential campaign, lying constantly, trying to rouse peoples' fear and hatred, instead of making a rational argument and engage in debate over the right course forward.
It's repellent, and it's disgusting, but I think what the election also showed was that it doesn't work. People are, in the end, a little smarter than the GOP thinks they are. Sooner or later (sooner if the media are a bit more responsible in their reporting than they seem to have been so far), people will realise that the talking points that are being trumpeted are based on untruth and an attempt to manipulate them. And voters really don't take kindly to being manipulated--once they realise that's what's going on, the GOP is going to lose even *more* ground in the public square.
But the administration has to keep cool. Don't panic and simply react. Don't let the cheap, nasty, crude tactics of the enemy push them into reacting in kind. Be rational, be composed, be adult, be patient. Let the baby throw its toys out of the crib. In time, it will wear itself out.
And I use the term "enemy" carefully and with intention, by the way. Because as hard as I try to see the faults on both sides, and as willing as I am to acknowledge deception or trickery in the speeches or position papers of the faction I tend to agree with, it seems to me that the Republicans have stopped participating in the political system in anything approaching a legitimate fashion. They are trying to be wreckers now, and they are carrying along the path that, in my opinion, they have been on for the last 30 years--nihilism. They are aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the democratic process in America. Why? Because democracy means give and take. It means sometimes you win and sometimes I do. It means arguing a case and being prepared to lose if you can't convince others to follow you. And I beleive that the people who runt he GOP these days are simply unwilling to follow that model any further. If they can't win, they want to lay waste. If they can't govern, they want to make it impossible for anyone to govern. They are willing to betray the basic principles of the American social contract in order to gain and hold power. And that sort of thinking, to my mind, has no place in this country.
And what's killing them is that the voters said so when they rejected the GOP campaign in 2008 and voted in Obama and a Democratic Congress.
So let the GOP scream and rage and shout and attack and generally behave like spoiled children. I think in the long run it will drive them further and further to the margins of American politics.
Not, of course, that the US is trying to implement an NHS-like system (would that they were!) But there seems to be so much misrepresentation of the NHS and the Canadian system in the rage-o-sphere that it's nice to hear someone trying to set it straight.
Having read, heard, and seen (on television, not in person) some of the supposed "voter rage" about healthcare, I think that I'm developing a very different take on the shouting tactics than I did to begin with.
I think it's good.
Because it's another sign that the GOP is really completely bankrupt, morally and intellectually. They are reacting they way they did during the latter portion of the presidential campaign, lying constantly, trying to rouse peoples' fear and hatred, instead of making a rational argument and engage in debate over the right course forward.
It's repellent, and it's disgusting, but I think what the election also showed was that it doesn't work. People are, in the end, a little smarter than the GOP thinks they are. Sooner or later (sooner if the media are a bit more responsible in their reporting than they seem to have been so far), people will realise that the talking points that are being trumpeted are based on untruth and an attempt to manipulate them. And voters really don't take kindly to being manipulated--once they realise that's what's going on, the GOP is going to lose even *more* ground in the public square.
But the administration has to keep cool. Don't panic and simply react. Don't let the cheap, nasty, crude tactics of the enemy push them into reacting in kind. Be rational, be composed, be adult, be patient. Let the baby throw its toys out of the crib. In time, it will wear itself out.
And I use the term "enemy" carefully and with intention, by the way. Because as hard as I try to see the faults on both sides, and as willing as I am to acknowledge deception or trickery in the speeches or position papers of the faction I tend to agree with, it seems to me that the Republicans have stopped participating in the political system in anything approaching a legitimate fashion. They are trying to be wreckers now, and they are carrying along the path that, in my opinion, they have been on for the last 30 years--nihilism. They are aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the democratic process in America. Why? Because democracy means give and take. It means sometimes you win and sometimes I do. It means arguing a case and being prepared to lose if you can't convince others to follow you. And I beleive that the people who runt he GOP these days are simply unwilling to follow that model any further. If they can't win, they want to lay waste. If they can't govern, they want to make it impossible for anyone to govern. They are willing to betray the basic principles of the American social contract in order to gain and hold power. And that sort of thinking, to my mind, has no place in this country.
And what's killing them is that the voters said so when they rejected the GOP campaign in 2008 and voted in Obama and a Democratic Congress.
So let the GOP scream and rage and shout and attack and generally behave like spoiled children. I think in the long run it will drive them further and further to the margins of American politics.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 10:31 pm (UTC)And, see, I just don't buy that. I think that the American public is a lot smarter than people generally give it credit for, and I think it's a lot less prone to rage and shout. The people I've seen and heard a lot of in the past week or so are, to be frank, mostly either political operatives (pretending to be "ordinary voters") or members of the underclass, people with little or no education and little or no intelligence and little or no self-respect. People who get attention at times like this because they are willing to shout and scream and make fools of themselves. I don't think that most Americans fall into that category, though. Poor (which far too many Americans are) doesn't mean foolish, and not well educated (which far too many Americans also are) doesn't mean stupid.
What I think *is* important, and what I don't see nearly enough of from the White House and the Democratic leadership, is a concerted effort to decide on a package of reforms, EDUCATE the public about those proposed reforms, and get behind it in a mass and push. I think the president wanted to avoid being too Clintonesque and being perceived as simply mandating something, but I think the result so far has been that he's been too hands off. It's important to get a solid majority of Democrats of all stripes and whatever few moderate Republicans are left together, but I feel as if it may have been a mistake to leave the process so long in negotiation without clarifying what basic principles *are* going to be part of the package.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 10:56 am (UTC)The NHS has its problems, but the bottom line is that we generally get health care when we need it at a price we can all afford, and a lot of you guys in the USA apparently just don't. Which appalls me beyond measure - what kind of a godforsaken third world situation is that?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 11:28 am (UTC)in West Virginia
in Los Angeles
no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:46 pm (UTC)