Why I'm not gloating

Why I'm not gloating about Health Care

Lots of reasons. I am happy that my President got this through, even though it is a clumsy, cludgy patchwork in comparison to the elegance of what I would have wanted: a Medicare +10% buy in, leading to an expansion until all these overlapping health systems connect.

My logic was clear, and I put it out at the beginning, for good or ill: life span, infant mortality rate, and cost per capita OR percentage of GNP. So far as I could see, every country that beat us on these measures uses a nationalized system. Biggest pool, no profit? Seems to be a no-brainer.

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But as we saw, there are intelligent, honorable people who disagreed with these judgements, on numerous grounds:

1) The belief that nationalized health care (NHC) would lead to diminished medical research.

2) Or decreased quality of care in some specific disease instances

3) That it would expand government dangerously.

If there are others I saw and considered worthy of respect (if not agreement) I apologize, I really do. I had a very serious problem with the fact that the majority (not the educated, reasonable folks on this forum) of individuals or pundits I heard speaking about this issue, or actually engaged in conversation, seemed totally unaware that the mass of the rest of the world uses such a system. The common trope seems to be that it will cost gigantic amounts (when the actual result is a lowered cost) or is some kind of experiment (when it has been tested thoroughly). That was genuinely bothersome, as if the anti-NHC position was dependent upon carefully maintained ignorance.

Couldn't be true--there were reasonable arguments against it. I literally never heard MY issues addressed by Right-wing media, which troubles me greatly.

What troubled me more was the fact that part of this was, quite clearly, sheer political theater: from the Right the avowed attempt to make this Obama's "Waterloo." From the Left, ultimately, the urge to get SOME kind of bill through, however flawed, with a commitment to fix it as we go. That if we didn't, this would be used by political opponents to cripple an entire political agenda. The intent seems to me to be: obstruct obstruct, keep anything elegant and reasonable from going through, and then criticize whatever crippled mess emerges as if that was the original intent.

And to a degree, it works! If you look at media on the Left, it is clear that a huge swath of 'em considers Obama a total sell-out to the Right, while forces on the Right consider this a total movement toward some kind of totalitarian Socialist nightmare. Wow. I hate politics, I really do.

The frantic, panicked ugliness of the Tea Party set, predictably racist in their rhetoric, is the leading edge of the ugly pushing by demagogues who know that this has been tried around the world, and don't seem to want to discuss that (I'm not implying that the discussion would be determinative--conversation on this blog proves that is not true. I merely state amazement that those core issues are so seldom addressed. Perhaps I am naive.)

They are terrified of the changes going on. And, yes, that a black man is in the White House, and that women are taking power. The code words are all over the place, and it is sad. But these are our brothers and sisters, and if I consider them wrong on this issue, so be it. We've been wrong too, every one of us.

What I believe is that this will get tinkered with to create State-level Opt-in programs that slowly eat away at the power of insurance companies until they no longer offer much primary health care--they primarily offer Cadillac plans. There was no way to do that directly: to fight the Republicans, Conservatives, AND the Insurance industry and Big Pharma at the same time would have been impossible. So it got splintered, and the Dems didn't take the bait of "let's start over." I agree that they could not. Feel pain that this was as far as we could get, but think you can't measure the strength of an airplane's engines unless you grasp the strength of the headwinds. I said once that I think Obama is the smartest guy I've ever seen on the national political stage. I don't know if that will translate into being a good president, I really don't. I think that against staggering opposition, he got the ball across the goal line--dirty, muddy, and bruised up, but it's there.

But I won't discount the fear and concern from the other side. Even the Birther insanity is just an expression of raw fear and loss of privilege. I feel sad for those who cannot adapt...and pray that things settle down. This bill is too late to save my mother's life. I feel nothing to gloat about, but much to be proud of in our country. The exact same pioneer/independent spirit that empowered this country has, in my mind, been hijacked by Corporatists who want to hold onto every scrap of money as long as they can, and fund perfectly reasonable Americans to promote splinter ideas that, in the aggregate, try to promote the idea that "government doesn't do anything right" when, bizarrely, usually the standards held up to prove governments don't work are...other government programs. I love the way people trying to prove our schools can't work generally compare them to schools in other countries, as if unconscious that those schools, outperforming our own, are collective programs.

Sigh. This is all so messy. I don't like it, but suppose I chose a hell of a time to start paying attention to Politics. We'll see what happens now. But for those on the Left unhappy--I ask that you look at the way the Right is raving and foaming, and realize THAT was the opposition. And to those on the Right who think we just went off a Socialist cliff--will you please listen to the real Socialists and realize that they are very close to thinking Obama a traitor? This legislation went right down the middle, not far enough in my book, but I am troubled by how few people seem to see that. I may be wrong, but if I'm right, there is a lot of waking up to do, on both sides.

I see nothing to gloat about.