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08/08/2009 01:03:28 PM · #1 |
I woke up this morning mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.
I used to think politics was about more than good vs. evil. I used to see shades of grey. Democrats and Republicans were simply two subtypes of individual, each working for their impression of the good of the nation in their own way. Nobody could be declared right or wrong, because it was what the people wanted that mattered.
It has been over the past year or so that I’ve realized the terrible truth; that the world is black and white. There is very little continuum--though evil may occasionally trickle into good minds, the evil ones remain staunchly so. I speak primarily of the evil of greed. The evil of want for power, want for money, want for one’s way, whatever it be. It has consumed near half of those of us elected to represent us on Capitol Hill, as well as in the media. I speak, primarily, of the Republican party, though at the moment it applies to the Blue Dog Democrats and anyone else in the pocket of health insurance.
So I’ve said the divisive words, and I’ll say them more concisely, so you can quote me: The people that represent the Republican Party’s leadership are evil. This is not evil as a college student might describe their midterm. This is not Snidely Whiplash evil. This is not evil in any way that the word has been watered down by the people who use ‘awesome’ to describe their french fries. This is a very real evil that works only for the good (and the relatively small good) of themselves and their benefactors, at the expense of millions of lives, billions of dollars, and the totality of the American ideal.
You will no doubt have picked up on a few key phrases in my diction and guessed that this is about healthcare. Yes, it primarily is. However, it applies to the Conservative manner of handling any issue today. They have a very specific tactic to spread support for their ideas—it’s this tactic in specific that is the true subject of this rant—and it’s mendacity. Lies. Misleading the electorate. The leaders of the Republican party, official or otherwise, have lost the spirit of compromise and instead want to take down this country from the inside.
In November of last year, the American people told them they were sick of their shit and voted them out of majority power. Rather than change their message to match the sentiments of the nation (you know, the intent of a Democratic Republic), they made an important decision—to change their strategy such that they could make the nation agree with them, whether or not it was the truth. And they told lies. They have been telling horrible lies since the beginning of this debate.
Literal lies, for one. They have told the American electorate that Obama’s healthcare bill would force us to get rid of our current healthcare plans and ration healthcare for the elderly, that it would send government workers to ask how they would like to die, that it would mandate sex changes for some, that it would harvest your organs, that it would be bureaucratic chaos of the highest degree. They have even tried to stop the bill by positing that our President is not eligible to do his job, even going so far as to propagate false birth certificates. Please note that the act of trying to unlawfully/untruthfully depose the leader of a nation is a hair’s breadth away from treason.
Then they omit truths. Government-run healthcare exists. It runs efficiently, cheaply, and far better than the insurance companies (even better than some of the 36 countries the WHO declared had better systems than ours…Certainly better than Costa Rica’s, at least). It runs so well, in fact, that we give it to our Congressmen, our military, and our elderly in the form of Medicare (and the considerable amount of overlap between those three groups). Why, in this land where we believe “all men are created equal” do some get preferential treatment?
Finally, they tell more metaphorical lies. These are the most insidious of all them, because they take the form of the very process they are meant to interrupt. I speak, of course, of the busing of angry citizens to disrupt town hall meetings on healthcare. Many of you know about this, maybe some of you don’t. Much like the ‘teabagging’ phenomenon over the stimulus packages earlier this year, these are fake grassroots uprisings orchestrated by the companies that stand to gain from the blockage of healthcare reform, as well as the Congressmen who have been bought by said companies.
Let us for a moment ignore the fact that many people have been misled into thinking healthcare reform is bad. The truth is that 52%-to-30%, Americans want reform (Harris, 2009). So for the same angry citizens to be disrupting different town halls across the country is misleading to our leaders. Their aim is not to posit an opinion for discussion, but to cause confusion and chaos. Furthermore, by showing up to multiple meetings, they are essentially getting their vote counted more than once. We are becoming a nation where legislation favors not those ideas that have the most support in the nation, but those whose support yells the loudest.
And I do not blame these poor, scared people. They want what they think is best, but all they know is the grim Red Specter of ‘Socialism.’ Their leaders have not educated them properly on the subject, and have furthermore told them not to listen to those who could. You will note that in my above statement, I did not say that the members of the Republican Party were evil, but the people who represent its leadership. I chose those words carefully, lest there be any confusion. The appellation ‘evil’ refers to congressmen who have accepted substantial campaign contributions from the health sector (and have also allowed it to affect their decision-making, of course), pundits on news television/radio who lie to their audience, and anyone else who seeks for their own private gain to stop a public option, knowing that the health, freedom, financial security (that’s life, liberty, and, as our lawmakers apparently see it, the pursuit of happiness) of some 50,000,000 of his countrymen hangs in the balance.
50,000,000. That’s the number of uninsured Americans. It’s not just vagrants and prisoners (who, by the way, deserve health care). It’s small business owners, freelancers, artists, people who are already sick and uninsurable: valuable, productive members of society. Let me put that number in perspective. Ever been to Dodger Stadium? Ever goggled at how many people there are there (or, more accurately, how many people there could be there?) That stadium seats a little over 50,000. So imagine, first, ten of those stadiums next to each other. Now, imagine that block of ten stadiums, and make ten of them. Now take that already unimaginably-large block of stadiums of make ten of them. It can’t be imagined. Obviously, not all of them will be ruined by lack of health insurance, but for that I have another unimaginably large number. A very real one. 930,000 Americans every year, most of them middle-class, well-educated individuals (so, statistically that means you if you’re reading this), go bankrupt specifically from medical bills. Sure, only about one fifth of the first number, but it only takes five years for it to meet, then exceed it. To quote author Steffie Woolhandler of the Harvard Medical School, “you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country.”
How can that be acceptable? How can anyone motivated by the good of his/her country vote to maintain that status quo? Where are the Democrats in all of this?
Well, that’s the thing. They’re in Congress, working on the bills to solve this situation. They’re working day and night to ensure their constituents, NOT (necessarily, though there may be overlap) their financial benefactors, get what they need. They’re working through the proper channels and aren’t trying to scare their constituents into agreeing with them. The liberal pundits on TV are, by and large, calmly refuting the lies they see every day. They are approaching the situation with reason and research, and the conservatives are drawing attention with the vim and vigor of a P.T. Barnum show. And unfortunately for us, there is a sucker born every minute.
So this is a call to arms. If you want to fight on the side of good, raise your voice up and be heard. Make some noise. Let everybody know that you don’t want your countrymen to be left by the wayside, and spread the truth with the same enthusiasm that your cartoonish villain counterparts spread lies. Write your Congressmen. Write your President—he has proven that he does read those letters. Make a YouTube video. Repost this note. Fight with the same facts you always have, but for the love of Country just don’t be quiet about it.
Though this issue is split practically down the middle with Republicans and Democrats, and the conservative media machine is largely responsible for the lies and deception of your fellow citizens, this isn’t about party politics. It’s a single issue, and if you can convince the Republican constituency to support it, you can convince the Republican party.
And now, a closing statement.
To those of you who seek power, who accept payment in exchange for their decisions, and carry out the will of your financial masters, I ask you this. What good is your power if it is to be weilded by someone else anyway? You are the proverbial genie of the lamp, with the power to mold the world, but ultimately bending to the capricious will of your masters. And yes, they do get to wish for more wishes.
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08/08/2009 05:27:47 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by zackdezon:
930,000 Americans every year, most of them middle-class, well-educated individuals (so, statistically that means you if you’re reading this), go bankrupt specifically from medical bills.... To quote author Steffie Woolhandler of the Harvard Medical School, “you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country.” |
Just to add that "most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance. More than three-quarters were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness." |
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08/08/2009 06:00:14 PM · #3 |
| Was the other thread not good enough to post this in? |
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08/08/2009 06:44:33 PM · #4 |
I hadn't been following said thread, and the end of it didn't seem like a fitting place for me to start off my own speech--many of the points likely had been covered. But I had a great need to get it all off of my chest, all-said or not.
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08/09/2009 12:58:33 AM · #5 |
| Inside every long post is a short one trying desperately to get out. :) |
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08/09/2009 04:52:51 PM · #6 |
Wow! Awesome. Not like french fries!
Originally posted by Dr.Confuser:
Inside every long post is a short one trying desperately to get out. :) |
This wasn't a post, it was a speech!
Message edited by author 2009-08-09 16:54:52. |
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