Health Care Reform, FUD, & Hate

I have been saddened in the last few days to see the Obama Administration appear to signal that they are willing to give up on a public option for insuring the millions of Americans that are uninsured or under-insured. It is the grand step that creates real change, as opposed to more self-defeating, and special-interest-serving laws. Without it we are not very much farther forward in real terms, but much farther backwards when it comes to the chance of actually doing this in the future.

I watch the news and listen to the grass roots opposition to the plan yell and scream, and carry guns to town hall meetings. They talk about socialism, as if it were evil, but they don't mean social security or medicare -- programs that they like, but which are socialistic. They don't appear to know anything about the various bills actually in the House and Senate. Instead they rail about the "dismantling of the America they grew up in". It's nonsensical until one considers that they aren't really afraid of socialism, because they are already enjoying that. What is really bothering them is demographic change.

In the next generation or two the United States' population is going to look very different than it did in 1980 when that particular woman grew up. Latin Americans will be in the majority. We have a black president now, who is wildly popular -- as is support for a public option 74%. A lot of the people who are yelling and using such irrational, and uninformed arguments must be wondering what the United States will look like in thirty years -- regardless of healthcare. There is so much fear, and hate in their arguments it is saddening to hear them. It seems that there isn't anything that Obama could do that they wouldn't suspect his motives.

I cried the night he was elected, and on his inauguration, because it seemed that we as a nation had overcome our racism to elect a smart person who wanted to change things for the better. He has a grand vision, and he needed our support then and now. Unfortunately, the fear and hate are proving more powerful than the desires of 74% of the people to provide a public insurance option. It's disgraceful, and I'm ashamed of the level of dialogue on this issue from the opposition.

They seem to have admitted tacitly that if they stay rational, and factual they have nothing to say, accept that they are owned by the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the rest of the healthcare industry.