Today, I received a YouTube clip, forwarded to me from a Friend. My friend is Bob Friend, a good guy; a retired small business owner, who now volunteers his time a couple times a week educating kids in science. The clip is of Georgia Senator Tom Price, a Republican, as he voices his concerns with healthcare reform. His emotions run high, and his rhetoric is powerful. Here’s the clip, then let’s think about what he’s saying.
“The members on this side of the isle have been attempting to work productively, positively on this issue.”
The very use of such weighted language, hyperbole, “takeover,” “death panels,” is neither productive, positive, or realistic. This country does things very differently than the rest of the world, and we can discuss the pros and cons, but the implication that we’re going to create some sort of drastic, apocalyptic changes to the healthcare system does nothing to further the debate and only muddies the waters and heightens the anger of the vocal fringes who won’t accept any kind of compromise.
“I care for patients who bristle at the idea that the federal government should be involved in their healthcare.”
Medicare, despite all of its flaws, is an established and needed program where the federal government is involved in healthcare. I don’t hear protesters calling for the dismantling of Medicare. And, from personal experience, I know that the loss of my grandmother not long ago would’ve been far more painful for everyone if not for this type of government-supported safety-net.
“A trillion dollar plus bill.”
This is a common scare-tactic. We’re talking a trillion dollars over a 10-year period, which works out to less than 1% of the GDP over that time. This, to me, seems like a worthwhile investment, and that price tag also does not take into account the serious savings that we could achieve by reforming the system.
“It kills jobs. It will destroy, DESTROY healthcare as we know it.”
What will kill jobs is a US that leaves business alone to shoulder the constantly rising costs of healthcare when the rest of the world lets business off the hook. That lack of competitiveness has already strangled our auto industry, and threatens all major US industry as health costs continue to skyrocket.
That “Grand-Scheme Chart” Price holds up with “the government between you and your doctor” drafted by the GOP is another scare-tactic. The system we have now is ridiculously convoluted as is, and we are the only industrialized nation where people routinely go bankrupt due to healthcare costs.
“Remove from them and their families the opportunities to make the most personal healthcare decisions.”
Do families really get the opportunity to make the most personal healthcare decisions now, with denied claims and in-network-only coverage?
There are good ideas and bad ideas when it comes to healthcare reform, but reform is needed. Knee jerk reactions and theatrical resistance will get us nowhere!
A swifter boat struck the dock this weekend and at the helm, a pained John McCain. Playing with matches, they matched Barack Obama with the word “terrorism,” stoking the basest, most baseless beliefs of the GOP base. As the crowds grew more and more rowdy, McCain’s 1st mate, Sarah Palin, didn’t even blink. Of course, according to her, not blinking is a sign of “confidence,” “readiness” and “knowing that you can’t blink.”
This same vice-presidential candidate who admonished Joe Biden for “pointing backward” when discussing the happening-now policies of the Bush administration, spent the week trying to link Obama to incidents of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The McCain Campaign’s tactics and latest ads are some of the ugliest in presidential campaign history. It is downright despicable, knowing Obama to be the target of a racist whisper campaign, to put his image in an ad next to the Pentagon, repeating the word “terrorist,” calling him “dangerous,” and asking if he is “too risky for America.” Sadly, there’s nothing the Secret Service can do about character assassination.
How could John McCain have slipped so low? McCain was the subject of phony “polling” calls in 2000, when South Carolina Republicans were asked if they would still vote McCain “if they knew that he had fathered a black child?” McCain probably would have learned a lesson from that incident of race baiting, but I suppose that would require “pointing backward.”
Perhaps he just learned the wrong lesson when he watched the Bush-Rove team, the guys behind the whisper campaign, win. McCain said of those who propagated the false rumors, “I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those.” The economy must still be alright in hell, because it seems as if that special place is adding an extension.
On Friday, a number McCain supporters’ anti-Obama sentiment had reached a boiling point. At a rally in Lakeville, MN, an uncomfortable McCain had to pause more than once to defend the opponent he’s spent millions to shiv. After asking the crowd to “show respect,” a woman took the microphone saying she “can’t trust Obama … he’s an arab.” To which McCain responded, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man citizen…”
For once, McCain was telling the truth. Barack Obama is indeed a decent family man citizen. Given the negative and deceitful campaign he’s running, however, it is becoming clearer and clearer that John McCain is not.
He’s a regular comedian. Immediately after delivering the one big punchline in his 20 minute speech, Joe Lieberman felt the need to explain the joke to his audience. Twice.
“Let me give you a little of what John would call ‘straight-talk’ … friends, if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I’m Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat. And I’m not! And I think you know that I’m not!”
The man has a knack for comic timing and little else.
But who cares to listen to Joe Lieberman? As a Democrat, he failed. As an Independent, he’s a failure. As a Republican, he’s a joke. At the RNC, the self-proclaimed “Democratic Independent” was applauded and celebrated with chants of “Country First, Country First” to his painfully partisan speech.
The following night, a better clown entered the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Hilarity ensued.
Rudy Giuliani had the crowd in stitches. After a cliffs notes version of John McCain’s time at the Hanoi Hilton, he tried to offer contrast with Barack Obama and hit hard with his first big joke.
“You have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education … He worked as a community organizer.”
To this, the crowd burst into uproarious laughter. Hysterics brought on by the line “community organizer.” Giuliani actually had to pause and move away slightly from the podium as the audience shared in a good belly laugh.
Watching the Republican National Convention feels like watching an episode of Jackass, only the RNC has ten thousand more jackasses.
What again is funny about community organizing? What’s funny about devoting oneself to those less fortunate? The Republicans have a truly twisted sense of humor.
“A small town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer’ that has actual responsibilities!” riffed Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, a half hour later.
What we saw during the Giuliani and Palin speeches were ugly scenes. In an arena packed tight with white, rural faces, entire sections in cowboy hats, clutching signs reading “Country First,” they ridiculed a young black man’s service to an underprivileged urban community.
If you want to criticize young black community organizers, why stop with Barack Obama? Dr. Martin Luther King, according to Sarah Palin, apparently had no “actual responsibilities.” Just think what he could’ve accomplished as the mayor of Wasilla.
“Country First” is not just another Republican campaign slogan. “Country First” is a targeted message. The word “country” has a number of meanings. Let’s see what our friends, Merriam and Webster, have to say:
1: an indefinite usually extended expanse of land: region <miles of open country>
2 a: the land of a person’s birth, residence, or citizenshipb: a political state or nation or its territory
3 a: the people of a state or district: populace b: jury c: electorate
4: rural as distinguished from urban areas <prefers the country to the city>
Country does not just mean ‘Nation.” The Republicans will not say it explicitly, but their new battle cry is an attempt to evoke an old battle. Rural vs. urban, white vs. black.
“Country First,” the RNC’s choice of country music between speakers, and the choice of rural Governor Sarah Palin are all part of a calculated Republican attempt to continue dividing the country for the sake of winning elections.
The Republicans think they are safe ridiculing community organizing given that in small towns, there is no need for community organizing. The communities are already organized by local governments and local church congregations. We can all agree that there are great differences between our country’s urban and rural communities, but does this mean we cannot share common goals and respect each others’ struggles? With one party claiming to be the only one that puts “country first,” it becomes difficult to even have a dialogue.
When the Republicans laugh at noble causes, the message they are sending and the image they are letting slip out is simply dreadful. They are desperate and defensive, petty and pathetic. They’re having a good laugh at their party now, but this election is no laughing matter, and there’s no way these clowns can win.
He’s a regular comedian. Immediately after delivering the one big punchline in his 20 minute speech, Joe Lieberman felt the need to explain the joke to his audience. Twice.
King, according to Sarah Palin, apparently had no “actual responsibilities.” Just think what he could’ve accomplished as the mayor of Wasilla.