The Anti-Health Agenda
Yes, we won, but now the real whining starts. And it is going to get ugly, fast.
There is simply no way to oppose healthcare reform without first admitting that you don’t give a shit about other human beings. The standard Republican aversions to entitlement programs and social services simply don’t apply because the whole thing is paid for, upfront. Democrats have been good about pay-as-you-go for the last decade and a half. It is the GOP who loves to spend tax money, now, and the deficit is a testament to that.
So the only way for the GOP to oppose a bill that protects children from being denied healthcare is to lie about what’s in the bill, or to simply express the hatred and contempt for human life that lives in their hearts. I stand by that.
What’s surprising to me is that no one on the left seems to be making this argument. No one is accusing the GOP of being baby killers, although you would be hard-pressed to find a group of people who have done more to ensure the death and impoverishment of American children in the last decade.
If you watched the summit Obama put together last month to call the GOP out on their bullshit, you might remember him telling various Republicans “You’re entitled to you own opinion, but not your own facts.” The Dems took to repeating this on talk shows because it sounded like the closest thing to a GOP-style talking point they could find.
But I think it misses the point. As long as the Republicans are entitled to their own opinions, the facts don’t matter. This bill saves lives and money, but the GOP is, as a unified front, opposed to it. It doesn’t matter if you call them out on a particular lie, no one on the right is going to suddenly start caring if poor people live or die. It is their opinion that you get what you deserve, and helping those in need encourages freeloaders (which is a fancy way of calling people “niggers”).
This is a deeply un-American sentiment. It’s also not very Christian, either, but good luck quoting Jesus to rich people. The reason why things like Social Security, Medicare, public schools, and the interstate highway system exist is because they benefit the common good. We pay our taxes because we generally understand that the money will be used for the common good. Wars, by the way, are also paid for with tax money, but I digress.
Of course this isn’t socialism, but that’s not what the GOP means when they call the new healthcare bill “socialism.” The GOP is just really good at word games, and socialism is a word that Americans have a negative association with. It’s not the GOP’s opinion, and it certainly isn’t a fact, but it makes any sort of social reform that much more difficult to rally support for.
As David Frum points out, the GOP entertainment professionals only make money if their customers are miserable and afraid. Frum makes the argument that while the passing of this bill is a loss for the GOP as a political party, it’s a big win for the noise machine because it will give people more reasons to bitch about the government. I disagree.
President Obama might have just dealt the GOP the single biggest blow it’s suffered since electing a dyslexic cocaine-addicted war criminal, not because the bill is a big political win, but because people’s lives are about to start getting better because of something the government did. Less misery, less fear.
But in order for people to notice, the Democrats have got to stop letting the GOP be entitled to their own opinion. They have to call the opposition what it is, Anti-American, Anti-Child, and Anti-Health.
Mon., Mar. 22, 2010
Reader Comments (5)
Great post, bro. I've already heard a lot of the coded objections and I'm just too fucking happy to fight them right now. If we called it the "War on Sickness" or the "War on Dying," maybe we would have an easier sell.
Outstanding post.
"no way to oppose healthcare reform without first admitting that you don’t give a shit about other human beings"
You make that sound like a bad thing. :-)
No, seriously, great post.
Update: Frum got canned. http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/frum-hell
He was asking for it. They weren't paying him to be honest.