Tag Archives: obama

Political Rants

Born again (again).

Yes, I know. The president’s bin Laden victory lap was a bit much by Spock standards. (George W. Bush being more in the Kirk category.) But by the standards of American election year politics, it was pretty subtle. So the resulting outrage from the right was all the more laughable. Seriously – these are the people who had Dubya fly a jet fighter onto an aircraft carrier (which they had turned around to keep San Diego out of the shot), parade around in a flight suit, and then do his famously premature victory speech under an enormous “Mission Accomplished” banner. These are the people who incessantly reminded us of their greatness throughout the Bush terms, and who continue to this very day.

Luckily for them, we are Americans and, as such, are born anew each and every morning. We have no collective memory, like a nation in advanced dementia. We do not value knowledge of our own history; in fact, the very term ‘history’ carries a negative connotation. Our politicians take advantage of this, of course – who wouldn’t? – and accordingly serve up the same hash over and over again. Cutting taxes makes everything better. Check! Budget cuts lead to growth and prosperity. Check! Antagonizing and even attacking other countries will make us safer. Check! On we go.

Obviously, the Republicans do not have a corner on this franchise. The Obama administration is carrying forward a lot of their policies for them, including ludicrous destabilizing boondoggles like missile defense batteries in Eastern Europe. But just now the GOP happen to be indulging somewhat gratuitously in the not entirely unrealistic notion that we do not remember yesterday any better than the day before. Right now the conservative candidates for the GOP nomination are lining up behind Romney, as it was always certain that they would, and singing his praises. After a bruising primary fight during which Bachmann, Gingrich, Santorum, and others unsparingly and unflinchingly heaped scorn upon the Mittster, to see them now stumping on his behalf inspires a kind of cognitive dissonance that should spark our collective memory a bit. But we shall see. 

It is another new day, after all. 

luv u,

jp  

Political Rants

Better than.

There isn’t much I can say about the presidential race except … it’s going to happen, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Much has been said about the general lack of enthusiasm about both major candidates. It seems we Americans always find ourselves in this situation. Certainly, we focus too much on famous people (i.e. politicians) and not enough on what is really important (i.e. politics). I supported Obama in 2008, but not because I loved him. Rather, it was because McCain would have been an unmitigated disaster – a point he has proven every time he’s opened his mouth over the last three years. With respect to the presidency, voting is a zero-sum game. If you lose, the other wins. And the other, my friends, gets worse every time around.

In all honesty, the Republican party is more virulent and destructive every time they return to power. It’s hard to imagine an administration more regressive and destructive than that of George W. Bush, but judging by Romney’s advisors – folks like John Bolton – it’s not hard to imagine that we would get just that. They will, of course, attempt to conceal their extremism starting … well, starting last week, when Santorum suspended his campaign and effectively ended the primary season. Romney will now be the nominee, and being the Colorforms (another sixties toy) creature he is, they will now stick a more moderate outfit to his two-dimensional frame. It’s Mitt the Moderate, once again! Come on, ladies! He didn’t mean it when he told Mike Huckabee  that he believes life begins at conception! Come on, Latinos! He was only pandering when he said Arizona’s SB 1070 “papers, please” law was a model for the nation!

Fortunately for Romney and for the Republican party, pop culture in the United States is a cross between a bulimic twelve-year-old and someone with advanced Alzheimer’s. We’re stuck in the perpetual purge/gorge cycle, and we can’t remember what happened yesterday … or even earlier today. Romney is the perfect politician for that circumstance. He apparently has no actual convictions, so he can seem equally committed to any portfolio of views that might fit a given electoral situation. Even having extensive video archives of him taking contradictory positions somehow doesn’t register. So what is likely to happen this fall? Anyone’s guess.

I’m not an Obama acolyte. There were some serious missteps over the past few years that demonstrate a certain lack of boldness on his part. But there’s no question but that he was better than the alternative, and he remains so today.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

To health in a handbasket.

1 Comment

The Affordable Care Act (what Republicans contemptuously refer to as “Obamacare”) goes before our brilliant Supreme Court this week. Given that the law does yeoman service to preserving the private health insurance industry in America and is therefore a friend to the almighty Corporation, one might expect them to turn back the constitutional challenges on that basis alone. There are, of course, stronger constitutional arguments in favor of the plan – David Cole runs through them in The Nation much more fluently than I could ever attempt to do. I think, though, that we have to see these challenges for what they are, not for an effort to secure something called “economic freedom” which G.O.P. presidential candidates regularly invoke but fail to define.

The challenges are, of course, a cynical delaying tactic and an effort to procure through other means what the Republicans failed to achieve through the legislative process. They have attempted to put a log in the spokes of this effort from the very beginning, despite the fact that the legislation we ended up with is precisely the kind of health reform their party has been advocating for decades. Aside from a slight expansion of those covered by Medicaid, under this legislation health insurance remains in the private sector. Outside of Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA, no one will have government health insurance unless they’re covered by a state plan. So the Republicans’ charge of a “government takeover of health care” is a transparent lie.

I don’t think the AFA is the best solution. I think we should have Medicare for all, expanded sufficiently to eliminate the need for so-called “Medigap” coverage. It would work better, be more efficient, bring better outcomes, and likely cost a great deal less than what we have now. Nevertheless, the AFA has some virtues; it has helped some people keep their coverage. Perhaps most importantly, it establishes the principle of national health insurance – one that we can hopefully build upon in the years to come.

The attack on the personal mandate is laughable, frankly. I’m starting to think that Americans – even though we live in the land of a billion insurance policies – simply do not understand the basic concept of insurance. “I don’t see why I should pay the medical bills of some drunk who sits around watching T.V. all day,” a neighbor of mine once griped. (He’s on Medicare.) Thing is, we already do pay for that guy. If he has no coverage and ends up in the hospital – as pretty much all of us eventually do – ultimately the bill goes to us. It’s a question of how we cover these costs.

People bridle at the notion of government forcing us to purchase something. But (like it or not), government has the right to tax us, correct? The health mandate says, buy a policy; if you can’t afford it, we’ll subsidize you. If you can afford it and refuse, you pay a tax. The fact is, the government is basically taxing everyone to provide universal coverage. Buy a policy and you get out of paying the tax. That’s not forcing you to do anything: you don’t have to buy insurance. But if you want the tax break, that’s what you’ve got to do. What’s unconstitutional about that?

Republicans say they have an alternative, and indeed they do: absolutely nothing. If there’s one thing you can say unequivocally about the AFA, it’s that it is better than nothing.

luv u,

jp